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Presently de Ligny said to the King: "Sire, I give you my word that my lord of Savoy wishes to give you a page who rides his chestnut better than any boy I ever saw, and he cannot be more than fourteen, although his horsemanship is as good as that of a man of thirty. If it pleases you to go and hear vespers at Ainay you will have your pastime in the fields there afterwards."
Her sister, Sedelenda, had found refuge and safety in the convent of Ainay, near at hand, and there, too, Clotilda would have gone, but her uncle, the new king, said: "No, the maidens must be forever separated."
"Upon my word!" exclaimed the Abbé, "go and seek help elsewhere; the funds of my abbey are meant to serve God and not to be spent in jousts and tournaments." Bellabre now put in his word and remonstrated. "Monseigneur, if it had not been for the virtue and the valour of your ancestors you would never have been Abbé of Ainay, for by their merits and not yours it was gained.
Bayard was measured and fitted with cloth of silver, velvet, and satin, and then went gaily home with his friend, both of them thinking it an excellent jest. When the Abbé of Ainay bethought himself later of what he had done, and sent a messenger in haste to the tailor, he found that it was too late and that his bill would come to hundreds of crowns.
But that was not what troubled young Bayard; it was the question how to find money for suitable horses and accoutrements. So he went to his companion, Bellabre, and asked for his help. "My friend, I beg of you to come with me to persuade my uncle, the Abbé of Ainay, to give me money.
Sir Claude de Vauldre, Lord of Burgundy, was regarded as the stoutest knight in France. He was then at Lyons, and was about to hold a tilt, with lance and battle-axe, before the ladies and the king. His shield was hanging in the Ainay meadows, and beside it Montjoy, the king-at-arms, sat all day with his book open, taking down the names of those who struck the shield. Among these came Bayard.
If this was the usual style of costume, which had also to be varied on different festivals, we can easily understand how impossible it was for young Bayard to procure such costly luxuries on his small means, and we can almost forgive him for the audacious trick he played on his rich relation the Abbé of Ainay.
It has pleased my lord to raise me from the condition of page into that of a squire, and I long to touch that shield, but I have no means of obtaining suitable armour and horses." Then Bellabre, a brave young fellow some years older than himself, exclaimed: "Why do you trouble about that, my companion? Have you not your uncle, that fat Abbé of Ainay?
Then the General added, turning round with a smile to the assembled company: "But we all know that his uncle, the Abbé of Ainay, does not take great pleasure in the youth's exploits, for it was at the old gentleman's expense that he procured his accoutrements."
I know that my uncle, the Bishop of Grenoble, would let me want for nothing if he were here, but he is away at his Abbey of St. Sernin at Toulouse, which is so far off that there would be no time for a man to go there and back." "Do not trouble," said his friend, "you and I will go to Ainay, and I trust we shall manage it." This was some comfort, but the young warrior had no sleep that night.
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