Brantome, in the Thirtieth Discourse of his _Capitaines Étrangers_,
writes of Furstemberg as follows:--
“Count William von Furstemberg was accounted a good and valiant captain,
and would have been more highly esteemed had he not been deficient in
faith, over greedy and too much addicted to pillage, as he showed once
in France, when he passed along with his troops; for after his passage
there was nothing left. He served King Francis for the space of six or
seven years [not more than six.--Ed.] with some five companies always
numbering from six to seven thousand men; however, after this long term
of services, or rather ravages and pillage, he was suspected of having
designs against the King’s person, as I have elsewhere related, and
those who would learn more of the matter will find the story in
the hundred tales of Queen Margaret of Navarre, wherein the valour,
generosity and magnanimity of that great King are clearly shown. The
other, in great fear, left his service and entered that of the Emperor
(Charles V.). If he had not been related to Madame la Régente (Louise
of Savoy), through the House of Saxony, whence sprang that of Savoy,
he would possibly have met with the fate he merited, had the King
been minded to it; but on this occasion the King wished to show his
magnanimity rather than have him put to death by the officers of
justice. Again the King pardoned him when, on the arrival of the Emperor
at St. Dizier in Champagne, he was taken, sounding the river Marne, (2)
which he had on other occasions well reconnoitred, in coming to or on
leaving France with his troops. He was on this occasion merely sent to
the Bastille, and got quit for a ransom of 30,000 crowns. Some great
captains said and opined that he ought not to have been thus treated as
a prisoner of war but as a real vile spy, for he had professedly acted
as such; and they said, moreover, that he got off too cheaply at such
a ransom, which did not represent the smallest of the larcenies that he
had perpetrated in France.”--Lalanne’s _OEuvres de Brantôme_, vol. i.
pp. 349-50.
Prior to this affair Furstemberg apparently showed some regret for his
earlier schemes against Francis I., for Queen Margaret, writing to her
brother in 1536, remarked:--
“Count William has asked me to write and tell you that there is a great
difference between the shameful purgatory of Italy and the glorious
paradise of this camp, (3) and he spoke to me of his past misdeeds,
which I would rather he should speak of to you,” &c.--Génin’s _Lettres
de Marguerite_, p. 321.
2 This occurred in September 1544. From an unpublished MS.
in the public library at Rheims it appears that Furstemberg
was wearing a disguise when captured. The Emperor had sent
him forward expressly to sound the river. Another
unpublished MS. at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (_anc.
fol._ 8561. f. 22), gives some particulars of his operations
about this time.--Ed.