He was now installed as Henri's aide-de-camp.
Jacques Chapeau also accompanied the party who were to make their way
into the town through the water. The men were all armed with muskets and
bayonets, but their muskets were not loaded, nor did they carry any
powder with them; it would have been useless in the attack they were
about to make, and was much wanted elsewhere.
Henri was at his post about the time at which de Lescure was preparing
to cross the bridge at Fouchard. It was an awful looking place at which
ha had to make his entrance there was certainly a considerable breach
in the wall, and the fragments of it had fallen into the fosse, so as
to lessen its width; but, nevertheless, there was full twenty feet of
running water to cross, which had more the appearance of a branch of the
river Loire, than of a moat round a town.
Henri saw that his men looked a little alarmed at what they had to go
through; he had a light straw hat on his head, and taking it off, he
threw it into the water, a little above the point he had to pass, and
as the running water carried it down he said:
"Whoever gives me that on the other side will be my friend for life.
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