Harvard Classics, vol 38 | Page 4

would not leave these behind him, wishing to clear the road
for our own men. The castle is seated on a small hill; which gave great

confidence to those within, that we could not bring our artillery to bear
upon them. They were summoned to surrender, or they would be cut in
pieces: they answered that they would not, saying they were as good
and faithful servants of the Emperor, as M. the Constable could be of
the King his master. Thereupon our men by night hoisted up two great
cannons, with the help of the Swiss soldiers and the lansquenets; but as
ill luck would have it, when the cannons were in position, a gunner
stupidly set fire to a bag full of gunpowder, whereby he was burned,
with ten or twelve soldiers; and the flame of the powder discovered our
artillery, so that all night long those within the castle fired their
arquebuses at the place where they had caught sight of the cannons, and
many of our men were killed and wounded. Next day, early in the
morning, the attack was begun, and we soon made a breach in their
wall. Then they demanded a parley; but it was too late, for meanwhile
our French infantry, seeing them taken by surprise, mounted the breach,
and cut them all in pieces, save one very fair young girl of Piedmont,
whom a great seigneur would have. ... The captain and the ensign were
taken alive, but soon afterward hanged and strangled on the battlements
of the gate of the city, to give example and fear to the Emperor's
soldiers, not to be so rash and mad as to wish to hold such places
against so great an army.
The soldiers within the castle, seeing our men come on them with great
fury, did all they could to defend themselves, and killed and wounded
many of our soldiers with pikes, arquebuses, and stones, whereby the
surgeons had all their work cut out for them. Now I was at this time a
fresh-water soldier; I had not yet seen wounds made by gunshot at the
first dressing. It is true I had read in John de Vigo, first book, Of
Wounds in General, eighth chapter, that wounds made by firearms
partake of venenosity, by reason of the powder; and for their cure he
bids you cauterise them with oil of elders scalding hot, mixed with a
little treacle. And to make no mistake, before I would use the said oil,
knowing this was to bring great pain to the patient, I asked first before I
applied it, what the other surgeons did for the first dressing; which was
to put the said oil, boiling well, into the wounds, with tents and setons;
wherefore I took courage to do as they did. At last my oil ran short, and
I was forced instead thereof to apply a digestive made of the yolks of
eggs, oil of roses, and turpentine. In the night I could not sleep in quiet,

fearing some default in not cauterising, that I should find the wounded
to whom I had not used the said oil dead from the poison of their
wounds; which made me rise very early to visit them, where beyond
my expectation I found that those to whom I had applied my digestive
medicament had but little pain, and their wounds without inflammation
or swelling, having rested fairly well that night; the others, to whom the
boiling oil was used, I found feverish, with great pain and swelling
about the edges of their wounds. Then I resolved never more to burn
thus cruelly poor men with gunshot wounds.
While I was at Turin, I found a surgeon famed above all others for his
treatment of gunshot wounds; into whose favour I found means to
insinuate myself, to have the recipe of his balm, as he called it,
wherewith he dressed gunshot wounds. And he made me pay my court
to him for two years, before I could possibly draw the recipe from him.
In the end, thanks to my gifts and presents, he gave it to me; which was
to boil, in oil of lilies, young whelps just born, and earth-worms
prepared with Venetian turpentine. Then I was joyful, and my heart
made glad, that I had understood his remedy, which was like that which
I had obtained by chance.
See how I learned to treat gunshot wounds; not by books.
My Lord Marshal Montejan remained Lieutenant-General for the King
in Piedmont, having ten or twelve thousand men in garrison in the
different cities and castles, who were often fighting among themselves
with swords and other weapons, even with arquebuses. And if there
were four wounded, I always had three of them; and if there were
question