LOTHROP'S /5 r s LIBRARY^ OF / ENTERTAINING HISTORY [STORY - : ^s:z FALL OF THE FAULENBACIL VALLEY OF F.RSTFELD. SWITZERLAND BY HARRIET D. S. MACKENZIE. Look on the white Alps round! If yet they gird a land Where Freedom's voice and step are found, Forget ye not the band, The faithful band, our sires, who fell Here in the narrow battle dell! WITH ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS. BOSTON: D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY, FRANKLIN ST., CORNER OF HAWLEV. COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY D. LOTHROP & COMPANY. PREFACE. THE annals of European history furnish few more thrilling stories than are to be found in the history of Switzerland. The pages of poetry are crowded with pictures drawn from the romantic adventures and the inspiriting deeds of the mountaineers in their struggles for freedom. The student of legendary lore turns to the same rich source for some of his most weird and imaginative themes. The lover of the picturesque revels in the grandeur of the Alpine scenery, and the adventurer finds in the same region the best opportunities for satisfying his desire for novelty and danger. The scientific man wanders in rapt delight over the heights and through the vales of Switzerland, where he may study glaciers and geologic systems, and make lofty ascents, with a greater profit than in any other part of Europe. There, too, the tourist loves to linger, gazing upon the unequalled scenery, making himself familiar with the homely manners and customs of the rural inhabitants, or buying their watches and carvings to carry home. The student of religious movements, and the inquirer into the march of the spirit of liberty and democracy, contemplate [the mountainous home of the Switzer, with a deep interest. They remember the romantic meeting of Werner, Furst, and Stauffacher, on the meadow of Riitli, in the fourteenth century, aud the phe- nomenal deeds of Calvin and his supporters at a later day. Nowhere is the beholder more ready to utter with the whole heart those words of the Swiss poetess, 2051189 vi Preface. " ' The everlasting hills,' how calm they rise, Bold witnesses to an Almighty hand! We gaze with longing heart and eager eyes, And feel as if short pathway might suffice From those pure regions to the heavenly land." Nowhere can we so heartily unite with Coleridge in his apos- trophe to Mont Blanc, " Great Hierarch ! tell thou the silent sky, And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, Earth with her thousand voices praises God." Every one looks to the little land of rocks and glaciers, lying in the centre of the continent of Europe, with feelings that are not awakened by any other region, and it has been the aim of the writer of the following pages to put into brief compass the story of the country, in order that those who are stirred by a general desire to do so, may readily acquaint themselves with it. The reader will find that Miss Mackenzie has the easy style that is demanded by such a task as that which she has set before her- self. Her pages give in prose the thrilling story of the republic, and are adorned also with many gems gathered from the poets. No country lends itself so successfully to the engraver, and the numerous picturesque illustrations will be found to have an unusual interest. A. G. CAMBRIDGE, January, 1881. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE. PHYSICAL FEATURES. Switzerland a small Country. Its Mountains. Whymper's ascent of the Matterhorn. Crystal Seekers. Swiss Riv- ers. Glaciers. Minerals. Climate. Population. Swiss Races and Languages 17 CHAPTER II. INTEREST OF SWISS HISTORY. Interest of Swiss History. Phocians leave their Country. They settle near Geneva. Appear at Helvetia. Two Tribes invade the Roman Provinces. Defeat three Con- sular Armies. They are beaten by Caius Marius. Pre- pare for an armed Emigration into Gaul. Caesar defeats them entirely near Bibracte. Helvetia including Rhaetia passes under Roman Rule. Julia Alpinula. Invasions of Barbarians 36 CHAPTER III. HELVETIA UNDER THE FRANKS. Helvetia re-emerges A. D. 400. Conquered by the Huns. Divided into three parts. Franks take possession of the whole Country. Feudal System Developed. Spread of Christianity. Meinrad founds Einsiedeln. Sigisbert preaches in Rhaetia. Establishes Disentis. St. Gall and his Companions. Fridolin converts Glarus. Progress goes hand in hand with the Church, 53 vii viii Contents. CHAPTER IV. CITIES AND CITIZENS. Prankish Empire melts away. Helvetia divided between Germany and Burgundy. Hungarian Invasion. Queen Bertha's Castles. Solothurn's Antiquity. Bertha founds Pagerne. Helvetia under German Rule. Building of Freiburg. Berne founded. Knight of 'Toggenburg. Crusades. Rudolf of Habsburg becomes Emperor, . . 75 CHAPTER V. REBELLION AGAINST AUSTRIA. The three old Cantons. "Hill of Angels." The Emperor Albert. Tyranny of Gessler and Landenberg Stauffach- er's Wife. The men of Griitli. William Tell. The Hollow. \Vay of Kussnacht. Death of Tell. Murder of the Emperor. His Daughter's Vengeance. The Abbey of Kb'nigsfelden, 97 CHAPTER VI. THE BATTLE OF MORGARTEN. The German Empire passes from the Habsburg's. Rage of Duke Leopold. Prepares to invade Switzerland. Battle of Morgarten. Rout of the Austrians. Perpetual Bond. Conspiracy of Lucerne. Battle of Laupen. Von Erlach's Triumph. Zurich received into the Bund. Glarus and Zug follow. Berne also becomes a member, . . -123 CHAPTER VII. BATTLES FOR FREEDOM. The Great Plague. Battle of Sempach. Arnold of Win- kelried. Immense Spoils. Battle of Nafels. The Ban- ished Peacock. Growth of Liberty. Strict Laws in the Towns. The heroic Appenzellers. Council of Con- stance. Swiss fight for the Emperor against Austria. The peculiar Horn of Uri, 148 Contents. ix CHAPTER VIII. REVOLT IN RH^TIA. The Struggle in the Grisons. Feudal Castles destroyed. The wise Abbot. The Three Leagues. The Toggenburg Inheritance. Zurich Rebels. Another Plague. Battle of Zurich. Invasion of Armagnacs. Battle of St. Jacques. Peace restored. Conquest of Thurgau, . .171 CHAPTER IX. WAR WITH BURGUNDY. War with Burgundy. French Bribes. The Cantons take the Field. Battle of Grandson The magnificent Spoil. Battle of Murten. Veit Weber's Rhyme. The Bone House of Morat. Third great battle at Nancy. Death of Charles the Bold. The Swiss Triumph. An unjust War, 193 CHAPTER X. WAR WITH AUSTRIA^ Quarrel of the Diet. Nicholas von der Flue. Freiburg and Solothurn join the League. Crime becomes common. Popular Victory in Zurich. War with Maximilian of Austria. The Swiss victorious. Maximilian yields to the coarse Peasants. Basel and Schaffhausen received into the Bund. Appenzell follows. Republic of thirteen Can- tons. Swiss Mercenaries become famous, . . . .213 CHAPTER XI. THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. Dawn of the Reformation. Zwingli. He preaches against Indulgences. Reformation accepted in Zurich. Also in Basel, Berne, St. Gall, and Schaffhausen. The Wald- statten remain Catholic. Trouble begins in the Common Bailiwicks. Religious War. Battle of Kappel. Death of Zwingli. A peace favorable to the Catholics. Troubles in Geneva. The Prisoner of Chillon. Liberal Party vic- torious, ........... 232 x Contents. CHAPTER XII. CALVIN IN GENEVA. Calvin's early Life. His Conversion. He arrives at Ge- neva. The Reformation takes root there. The Vener- able Company. Geneva modelled on a Hebrew Com- munity. Punishment of Servetus. The Protestant Refugees. Calvin's last Illness. His Leave-taking and Death. His Character and Influence, .... 255 CHAPTER XIII. RELIGIOUS TROUBLES. Geneva still an Independent Republic Troubles in the Italian Bailiwicks. The Exiles of Locarno. Profitable Guests. The Borromean League. St. Verena. The Swiss on St. Bartholomew's Day. Strife in Appenzell. The Canton is Divided. The Escalade at Geneva. Re- formers beaten in Valais. War in Valtelina. Massacre at Tirano, ' . . 274 CHAPTER XIV. WAR WITH AUSTRIA. Austria interferes. The Grisons desolated. France steps in. German Emperor retires. In the Confederacy only disputes. Efforts to keep out Foreign Armies. Rebel- lions caused by heavy Taxes. The Heimathslosen. Mount Pilatus. Acknowledgment by Germany of Swiss Independence. A Traveller of the Seventeenth Century. Picture of Geneva, 289 CHAPTER XV. PEASANT REVOLTS. General Discontent. Revolt of Peasants. It is suppressed by Zurich and Berne. Another Religious War. Battle of Villmergen. Parties in Basel. Toggenburg War. Foreign Ambassadors Interested. The Abbot of St. Gal- len retires. Second Battle of Villmergen. Protestant Victory. Peace of Aarau, 308 Contents. xi CHAPTER XVI. SWISS DECADENCE. Rest from Foreign Wars. A Hollow Peace. Wise Majori- ty disregarded. The Prince-bishop of Basel. He is cen- sured by the Catholic's themselves. Contest in Glarus. Trouble in Zug. The Devil and Appenzell. The Har- ten and Linden. Conspiracy of Henzi. Berne takes Vengeance. Henzi's Widow, 324 CHAPTER XVII. INTERNAL TROUBLES. Rebellion in Leventina. Subdued by Uri and the Confed- eracy. Revolution in Freiburg. Chenaur's Failure. Geneva in a State of ferment. Struggles of the Liber- als. New Constitution. Geneva Besieged. Mirabeau's Opinion. The New Order. Gibbon. Voltaire and Rousseau 344 CHAPTER XVIII. RISING OF THE STORM FROM FRANCE. The French Revolution. Its Principles spread to Neuchi- tel. Riots in Geneva and Basel. The Republic of Rau- racia. The Cantons frightened. The Swiss Guard at the Tuileries. The Cantonal Governments grant nothing. St. Gall an exception. Approaching Danger. Napo- leon's need of Switzerland. The Cisalpine Republic. The enemy at the Frontier, 364 CHAPTER XIX. FRENCH INVASION. Advance of the French Army. Reforms begun too late. Means of Defence. Swiss Defeats. Capture of Berne The Gallicized Republic. Resistance of the Waldslat- ten. Battle of Unterwalden. French Occupation. Ter- ror and Misery. Napoleon speaks Swiss Delegates at Paris. The Act of Mediation, 383 xii Contents. CHAPTER XX. MATERIAL PROGRESS. NEW CONSTITUTION. Ten Years of Progress. The Linth Canal. The Simplon Road. Napoleon's Downfall. Arbitration of the Pow- ers. The old Republic comes to Life. The Helvetian Society. The Road over the St. Gothard. Revised Con- stitutions. Troubles in Schwyz. Neuchatel tries for Independence, 403 CHAPTER XXI. DIVISION OF BASEL. DISPUTES WITH FRANCE. Disputes in Basel. Rebellion in Country Districts. The League of Sarnen. Open Hostilities. Basel divided in two Parts. Great Improvements in Public Schools. New Universities. Troublesome Poles. The Foreign Powers threaten War. The matter Settled. Storm brewing from French Quarter. Louis Philippe renounces his Friends, . 426 CHAPTER XXII. FRESH RELIGIOUS DISPUTES. Religious Disputes. Catholic Unions. Baden Protocol. The Nuncio retires into Schwyz. Aargaufor Authority of the State. Jesuits in Schwyz. Trouble with France con cerning Louis Napoleon. Quarrel about Strauss in Zurich. Aargau wants to restrict Convents. Third fight at Villmergen. Vote for abolition of Convents in Aar- gau. The Measure not ratified, 448 CHAPTER XXIII. THE CONVENT QUESTION. The Convent Question. The Nuncio returns to Lucerne. The Sonderbund. It begins work in Valais. The Won- ders of that Canton. The St. Bernard. Young Switzer- land. The Jesuits Triumphant. Their Expulsion Pro- posed. Bitter Strife. Attacks of the Free-corps. Their Failure, 473 Contents. xiii CHAPTER XXIV. THE SONDERBUND WAR. Warlike Preparations. The Diet at Zurich. Sonderbund Projects. Vote against the League. Members of the Diet retire. Civil War declared. Dufour General. Prompt Measures. Freiburg yields. Other Cantons fol- low. The War of a Month. The Sonderbund dis- solved 492 CHAPTER XXV. UNION RESTORED. The Union restored. Accounts settled. Jesuits finally expelled. Foreign Powers meddle. Neuchatel makes another Effort. She joins the Confederacy. New Bond of Confederation. Accepted by the Cantons. Railways and other Improvements. Geneva becomes Liberal. Disagreement with France. Neuchatel's Independence acknowledged by Prussia, 510 CHAPTER XXVI. THE SWISS DEFEND THEIR NEUTRALITY. First Trouble with Napoleon III. Commercial Treaty with France. Friendship with Italy and Germany. The Franco-Prussian War. Swiss Neutrality threatened. Preparations for Defence. Outburst of Patriotism. General Herzog. A Winter Camp. Bourbaki's Army received and disarmed. Swiss Assemblies. Public Schools. Liberty and Progress, 537 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Fall of the Faulenbach, Valley of Erstfeld FRONTISPIECE. Glacier des Bossons and Mont Blanc xix Ibex fighting 19 Falls of the Bernina 27 Chamois overtaken by an Avalanche 33 Eyrie of the Golden Eagle 47 A Guide from the Engadine 55 Pilgrims at Einsiedeln 61 Disentis 65 St. Gall . ?i Lauffenburg 77 Falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen . . . . ' . . 83 Freiburg 89 Castle of Kyburg 93 Axen Cliff and Road 99 Riitli 107 Fluella Pass i ' i Scene in the Canton of Uri 115 Church in Burglen , .119 Herdsman's Dogs struggling with a Wolf .... 127 Berne Minster, with Monument of Rudolf von Erlach . . 133 The Rathhaus Quay, Zurich '39 XV xvi List of Illustrations. PAGE Lake of Zug , 145 Sempach . . 151 Room in Winkelried's House, at Stanz 155 View from Schweizerhof Hotel, Lucerne . . . . 163 Women of Appenzell 169 The Via Mala ......... 175 The Altmann 181 Room in the castle of Wuelflingen, near Witherthur . . 185 Storm in the Mountains 191 Church of St. Francois, Lausanne 197 The Ober-aar Glacier . . 205 Entrance to the Church of Guin, Canton Freiburg . . 211 Mountain Stag 215 At Fluellen, on the Lake of Lucerne ..... 221 Sarnen 227 Basel Minster 235 Basel 241 Zurich ........... 247 Geneva 253 Berne 259 Bridge over the Russe, in Tobel ...... 262 Sion 265 The Reichenbach,T)n the way to Rosenlaui . . . -271 Devil's Bridge, on the St. Gothard Road .... 275 Storm in the Valley of the Rhone 281 Monteratsch Glacier and Pic Bernina _ 285 The Wetterhorn and Wellhorn, from Rossenlaui . . . 291 Plants and Shrubs, Lake of Geneva ..... 299 General Assembly of East Switzerland 305 Boating on the Lake of Brienz 313 List of Illustrations. xvii PAGE Vintage Festival, Vevay 319 In a house, in Appenzell .... ... 327 Val Tremola 331 Mountain Pastures 337 Flocks and Herds returning Home 341 Lukmanier Road, Val Medels 347 Falls of the Inn at St. Moritz 353 Waeggis, Lake of Lucerne 361 Chamois 369 View from the Rigi 375 Castle of St. Anna, at Rorschach 381 Scene in a Court of Justice in Appenzell .... 387 Aarau . 393 Court-yard of the Rathhaus, Basel 399 Rathhaus, Zug 405 A Mountain Forest 411 The Hollow Way at Kiissnacht . . . . . 417 Biasca 423 View of Kiissnacht and Waeggis, from the Burgstock . 429 Church of Montreux . . . . . . . 435 Statue of Rousseau, Geneva 441 The Wellborn and Wetterhorn 445 Memorial to the Swiss Guards 449 An Inn in the Bernese Oberland 455 Wengernalp, Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, Grindelwald-Glacier, Scheidegg, and the Great Eiger 459 The Bridge at Interlaken 465 Thun 471 Sunday on the Sanetsch Pass, Valais 475 Tourists on the Pic d' Arzinol, Valais 481 Simplon Road 493 xviii List of Illustrations. PAGE Stone quarries on the Summit of St. Gothard Pass . 499 The Piotta Gorge at Faido, on the St. Gothard Road . . 505 Old woman from Appenzell ...... 509 Rustic Ball, Brienz 513 The Valley of Ammertenthal 517 Street in Schaffhausen 521 A Wrestling-match on the Haselberg 525 Castle of Wildenstein . 529 Landslip at Goldau ........ 534 Buying Wood-carvings in the Bernese Oberland . . . 539 Lake of Walenstad . . 543 The Valley of Haslithal 547 Alpine Bearded Vulture 551 Dogs of St. Bernard 555 Gorge of the Trient, Valais 559 The Eve of the Festival of Corpus Christi, in Valais . 563 The Lake of Lowerz, with view of the Mythen . . 567 The Maloja Pass . . , . ... . . .571 GLACIER DBS BOSSONS AND MONT BLANC. SWITZERLAND. CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL FEAT1 T RES. THE place occupied by Switzerland on the map of Europe is so small, that one is surprised that it should have been able to keep alive its in- dependent national existence for so many hundred years. It is surrounded by powerful neighbors. On its north and northeast lie Germany and Austria, in the shape of Baden, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, and the Tyrol. Piedmont and Savoy border it on the south, and France on the west. It is defended, however, by the strong natural barriers which have helped it to beat back invasion since the earliest days of the republic. On the north side flows the 17 18 Physical Features. great river, the Father Rhine of German poetry. On the northeast, the beautiful Lake Constance the Boden-see divides Switzerland from Ger- many, and the Rhine again becomes a boundary, on the east, together with the Grisons Alps. The Rhsetian and Pennine Alps, the lake of Geneva, and the Jura range in the west, complete the circle which divides Switzerland from the outer world. The dimensions of the country are wonderfully small, taken in comparison with its achievements in various fields. Its whole area is fifteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight square miles; in other words, it is little more than one-third the size of New York or Pennsylvania, and would cover about one-fifteenth part of Texas. It has grown very gradually to even these modest proportions, the Switzerland of the fourteenth century, the " eight old places of the confederacy," having only five thousand two hundred and six square miles. Small as the country is, the larger half of it is occu- pied by the great mountains of which we have just spoken ; and the grandeur and beauty of these can scarcely be put into words. Peak rises above peak, in endless variety and magnificence. There are the Grisons, the Pennine and the Bernese Alps, each IBEX FIGHTING. Mountains. 21 with its famous group of giants, of different form and structure. The highest ranges have a nucleus of granite, above which are gneiss and mica slate. Limestone is found more particularly in the St. Bernards, and the conglomerate which is called nagelfluh, a coarse sort of pudding-stone, makes up a large part of some mountains, such as the Rasz- berg and the Righi, where it alternates with beds of soft sandstone. The St. Gothard group is the glory of Italian Switzerland, though its highest peak is scarcely ten thousand feet, and is far overtopped by the lofty heights of its neighbors in Valais. In that canton, are the great St. Bernard and the Sim- plon, each eleven thousand feet, and each famous for the humane efforts which have so greatly less- ened the perils of their dangerous passes. There, too, is Monte Rosa, rising to a height of more than fifteen thousand feet, wrapped in snow of dazzling brightness, and with the most beautiful glaciers at its feet. Most terrible of all, there stands behind the valley of Zermatt, a grim sentinel on the Italian frontier, the black Matterhorn, known to the Italians as Monte Cervino. One feels over- whelmed, almost crushed, at the sight of its awful pinnacle, which, rising from the mass of the moun- 22 Physical Features. tain at the height of eleven thousand feet, lifts itself in the form of an obelisk, with bare, smooth sides, for four thousand feet more. The legend of the mountain relates that the wan- dering Jew, Ahasuerus, penetrated into the wil- derness as far as the Matterhorn, and climbed to its top, to find a beautiful city built among luxu- riant woods. The people of the neighborhood also fixed upon it long ago as the scene of the paradise of their imagination, the very heaven itself. It is, indeed, a peculiarly Swiss heaven that they dream of there, with the streets paved with cheese, while the fissures of the rocks are filled with butter, and the streams are bridged over with wheaten rolls. An occasional hunter is supposed to visit this blessed spot, and to find there wild goats and chamois of an ideal beauty and perfection ; but he can only enter there once in twenty years, and may bring no game away. Setting aside legends, men have been found to scale the mountain, which was long thought inac- cessible. The boldest mountaineer of this century, Whymper, reached its top in the summer of 1865 ; and though four of his six companions lost their lives in the descent, and he shrank with natural horror from ever undertaking it again, he had The Bernese Oberland. 23 shown the way, and others have followed. Even a young girl of eighteen has accomplished this feat, and the Matterhorn is numbered among the conquests of the Alpine Club. In the Bernese Oberland there is the Schreck- horii, with a height of thirteen thousand three hundred and ninety-seven feet, and a whole group of inferior horns, the Willhorn and Wetterhorn, the Schneehorn and Faulhorn, the Ober-aar- and Finster-aar-horn. Every one of these peaks could tell its own tale of daring bravery, of disaster and death. It is not only the men who toil to their summits for the sake of overcoming obstacles, or of advancing science, who there meet their fate. Many poor goat-herds perish every year, as well as the crystal seekers, who ply their dangerous trade just where other industries cease. Sup- plies of crystal, which seem inexhaustible, are found in the caves, especially in the famous cave of the Zinkenberg, where these poor people have, for years, " ascending trod The upper realms of frost ; then, hy a cord Let half-way down, entered a grot star-bright, And gathered from above, below, around, The pointed crystals." 24 Physical Features. In the Bernese Alps is the Righi, whose top it was once th,e greatest ambition of tourists to reach, and up which they now go by a railway. This makes it very different from the old days, when two Popes granted a full indulgence to everyone who should ascend the mountain, and the Righi culm stood bare and desolate, where there is now a fine hotel. Still further on in this chain of mountains, in the district of the Bodeli, stands the Jungfrau, in her unapproachable beauty. Nearly fourteen thousand feet above the sea, her " very repose inspires awe and reverence." " The Jung- frau is an image of the inaccessible ; and great and noble souls consider her to be unsurpassed in beauty by any other mountain." In the mountains of the Grisons and Valais rise the largest rivers of Switzerland. First in impor- tance the Rhine, the " sacred river of Germany," begins its infant life, which is fed by the many little streams which make up the Vorder- and the Hinter-Rhein. Later, it passes eastward, and, receiving the waters of the Plessur, the Landquart and the Tamina, becomes a good sized river by the time it reaches the town of Sargans, on the frontier, whence it continues as the eastern boundry of the country, until it reaches the Boden-see. The Rhone. 25 The Rhone also rises in the St. Gothard group, as well as the Reuss and Ticino, which, with the Aar. complete the list of the important rivers of Switzerland. " The swift Rhone clears his way between Heights which appear as lovers who have parted In hate ; whose mining depths so intervene That they can meet no more, though broken-hearted." The river rises at times beyond its narrow valley of sixty miles length, in floods which have often brought great destruction upon the canton of Valais. Men and animals have perished in these floods, and houses and even villages have been swept away. Almost all its course in Switzerland is through Valais, where it runs in a southwest- erly direction as far as Martigny, and then north- west until it falls into the Lake of Geneva ; and the people of that thinly populated canton have naturally settled near its banks. At St. Maurice the valley grows so narrow, and the Bernese and Pennine Alps approach so nearly on the opposite sides of the river, that in former days this entrance to the canton was closed every night by strong gates on either bank. 26 Physical Features. " Journeying upward by the Rhone, That there came down a torrent from the Alps, I entered where a key unlocks a kingdom: The mountains closing, and the road, the river, Filling the narrow space." The glaciers of Switzerland are as wonderful as the mountains. It need scarcely envy the great Mer de glace of Savoy, while it can boast of the smaller frozen seas which lie everywhere wedged between its great mountains, and feeding its streams and rivers. In the Bernese Oberland alone there are those of the Finster-aar-horn, and Ober-aar, the Rosenlaui, loveliest of Swiss glaciers, and the Grindelwald, with its lower, division twelve miles long, and the upper part a dream of beauty, from the exquisite purity of the ice, and of the crystal grottoes which have been hollowed in its depths. In Valais, the great Rhone glacier an icy lake, which changes suddenly into snow fields as it reaches the valley hides the source of the Rhone ; and in the Engadine the Morteratsch shows in great numbers the glacier-tables, blocks of stone which keep the glaciers beneath them safe from sun and rain, and so, by the gradual melting of the mass around them, are left upheld by pedestals of ice ; for the law of change works among them THE BKRMNA. Mineral*. 29 steadily. There is a constant slow motion going on in these mighty masses, some of which move as much as eight inches a day. In this way mountain paths have been gradually blocked up by the advance of ice in some parts of Switzerland, while in others, the glaciers have slowly retreated further up the mountains. Various minerals are found in the Alpine and Jura mountains. Besides the crystal, garnet, and topaz, particles of gold are washed down in the sands of the Reuss and Rhone. Lead and copper mines were formerly worked in the Orisons, and iron is still found there. Alabaster and marble, gypsum and asphalt, are found in some of the cantons, and sulphur near Lake Thun. There is rock salt in Vaud, and mineral springs at Leuk in Valais, Baden in Aargau, and St. Moritz and Pfeffers in the Grisons. The climate is rather severe in proportion to the latitude ; or rather climates, for Switzerland can show the greatest extremes of heat and cold in a very small space. In truth, there are seven different regions, with varied vegetation, from the vine-bearing country to the heights of perpetual snow, where only a few lichens can support life. The vine grows as high as seventeen hundred feet 30 Physical Feature*. above the sea-level ; then comes the hill country, producing the most beautiful walnut trees. The upper mountains have good crops of grain and excellent pastures. A belt of pine trees follows, and then come the true Alpine regions ; first, the highest pastures, which are very good for a short season, and then, only the most stunted vegetation, at a height where the year is all winter with the exception of five or six weeks of midsummer. Between the mountains, which cover half of Switzerland, is a high undulating country, which extends for a distance of one hundred and thirty- five miles, from the Lake of Geneva in the south- west to Lake Constance in the northeast. In this lofty plain are the lakes and cities of Switzerland ; the lakes, with every form of beauty that can be desired, from the Boden-see, the Constance of the north, through the long list. Zurich, Lucerne, Zug, the Walensee, Brienz, and Thun, Bienne,- Neuchatel and Leman, with Lugano and Maggiore, south of the Alps, make up the number, and give the principal cities their beautiful situations. Geneva and Lausanne, are on the banks of Lake Leman, and Xeuchatel, Thun, Lucerne, Zurich, and Constance all stand on the shores of the lakes whose names they bear. In these cities live the busy Population. 3 1 people who make up a great part of the population of two million six hundred and sixty-nine thousand two hundred and forty-seven, which was given by the census of 1870. This population is divided very unequally between the twenty-two cantons and three half cantons. Berne, which has the honor of giving the capital city to Switzerland, has about one-fifth of the whole number of inhabitants, while the half canton of Appenzell-inner-Rhodes has only eleven thousand, and the tAvo halves of Unterwalden count in the Obwalden scarcely four- teen thousand, and in the Nidwalden only eleven thousand. Of the two forms of religion which have divided Switzerland at various times into opposing armies, Protestantism has a preponderance of near- ly half a million, the Roman Catholics numbering one million eighty-four thousand five hundred and twenty-five. In 1870, one million and ninety-five thousand four hundred and forty-seven were either wholly or in part supported by agriculture, while manufactories gave employment to over two hundred thousand ; and those engaged in handi- crafts of various kinds numbered as many more ; at the same time there were seven thousand public schools, which educated four hundred thousand pupils, education from the age of seven 32 Physical Features. to fourteen being compulsory. The finances of the state are very prosperous, and in almost all the cantons the amount of public property exceeds that of the public debt. The Swiss can still trace their descent from the three races from which they sprang, by their differ- ent languages. The number of families speaking German is three hundred and eighty-four thou- sand. five hundred and thirty-eight. French is the tongue of one hundred and thirty-three thousand five hundred and seventy-five, and Romansch, the corrupt Latin of the southern cantons, that of eight thousand seven hundred and seventy eight. The last named language is falling into disuse, as intercourse with the outer world increases; but in the heart of the southern cantons, especially of the Grisons it is steadfastly preserved. Newspa- pers and books are written in Romansch, and a clergyman of Samadan, lias translated into it the whole of the New Testament ; the following specimen of which is from St. Luke ii. 9. " E mera un anngel del Segner als comparit, e la gloria del Segner splendtirit intuorn els ; ed els truettan fich." The Romansch-speaking people are generally the shepherds and peasants of the upper valleys of the Rhsetian Alps. Among them are mighty AM01S OVKHTAKKX B\ AN" AVAl-ANCIIfc Mighty Hunters. 35 hunters, who find the wild beasts that have retreat- ed there, against which it is no longer necessary to offer rewards, like that of the old Bishop Adrien, for every bear and wolf that should be killed. And it is among these people that one must seek for the type of the Swiss of the early times, who have vanished from the crowded cities lower down. CHAPTER II. INTEREST OF SWISS HISTORY. HELVETIA UNDER THE ROMANS. [113 B. C. TO 400 A. D.] THERE is scarcely a great struggle of ancient or modern times that is not reproduced in miniature in the history of the small republic of Switzerland. The national life has in turn been saved from barbaric invasions and foreign tyranny ; from conspiracy at home' and threatened disunion. It has had its Thermopylge and its Appomattox, and has neither despaired after the one, nor for- gotten to be merciful after the other. In its different parts it has been ruled in turn by emperor and arch-duke, by lords and workingmen ; and, in one of its cantons, it has given to the world the strange spectacle of a city governed as nearty as possible after the manner of the Jewish theocracy of old. In short, it is a field on which every game has 36 Liberty. 37 been played in turn, and played, on the whole, fairly and well. Through all these changes and chances, the progress of Switzerland towards true liberty has been steady and sure. Pure democracy, per- haps, exists nowhere in the world, except in the assemblies of the Waldstatten and Apperizell ; and there could scarcely be a more perfect equality than is obtained in the Swiss schools. The aim of their teachers is, not to educate one giant among dwarfs, but to raise up the dwarfs as much as possible ; and it is their boast that their country has produced no Caesar, but a thousand Tells. We cannot fail to notice certain points of resem- blance between the people of the Swiss republic and our own. There is in both a steady persever- ance, which is certain to reach its goal in time, a thorough respect for law, and a strong common sense, which keeps the people firm in their hours of greatest excitement. Like America, Switzerland has always been the refuge of the oppressed of all shades of faith, religious and political, who have been driven out by less tolerant nations, or forced from their homes by foreign conquest. It was a colony of such exiles that first peopled its barren wilderness. 38 Helvetia under the Romans. Herodotus tells us that after the conquest of the Phocians by the Persian Cyrus, a small number of them gave up forever their native land, and sailed for a place near the mouth of the Rhone, where they founded the city of Massilia, the Marseilles of later times. 'Later, a branch of this Phocian colony followed the course of the Rhone, until, passing beyond the Jura mountains, they came to " the melancholy abode of the Celts," situated on the banks of a great lake, which they called " the lake of the remote wilderness." They travelled slowly along the river, until they came to a narrow valley, " the dark abode of eternal night," through which the Rhone rushes to the lake. Further still they penetrated up the valleys of the Rhone and Reuss, until they saw before them the towering peak of the Galenstock, tallest of all the St. Gothard group, which they well named the " Pillar of the Sun." The Galenstock stands still worthy of his name, with the three glittering glaciers around him, and the endless stores of crystal and topaz at his feet ; but the records of the colo- nists have vanished, and their next appearance in history is under the name of Helvetii, in the year 113 B. c. At that time two of their tribes, the Tigurini Early Tribe*. 39 and Tugeni from which names are derived those of Zurich and Zug joined the Cimbri and Teutons in an invasion of the Roman provinces. They defeated one Roman consul near Marseilles, but then, finding that another army had crossed the Alps behind them, they hurried back to the defence of their own country. They were led by a young chief called Divico, the first Helvetian name on record, who met the consul Longinus near the point where the Rhone falls into Lake Geneva. There the Romans were again beaten by this hitherto unknown and barbarous people ; both the consul and his lieutenant were among the killed, and the remnant of their army was obliged to give hostages and to pass under the yoke. The astonishment and terror of Rome rose to the highest point, when, soon after, a third consular army was defeated in the same way ; but the barbarians did not follow up their success. Pos- sibly there may have existed, at that early day, the germ of the spirit which made them invincible \\hfii lighting for their own homes, but never steadily bent upon increasing their territory. "A handful of Swiss," wrote the council of Berne nearly fifteen hundred years later, "is a match for an army. On our own soil, with our 40 Helvetia under the Romans. mountains behind us, we can defy the world." The war with Koine went on in a desultory way, until Cains Marius gained two victories over the Helvetians, but satisfied with having saved the republic, he did not venture to follow them back to their mountains. It was at the last of these battles that the Cimbriaii and Helvetian infantry were described as using long pikes, while their cavalry wore iron armor, with shields and helmets, showing that they had some knowledge of working in metals, at that early time. Their submission to Rome was the next great event in the history of the Helvetians and we have the advantage of an account of the war that preceded it, in the book written by Rome's greatest general. In the prime of life, Caesar had been sent, in the year 58 B. c., to take command on the western frontier of the republic. It was at a critical moment, for the Helvetians were just about to carry out an extraodinary resolution, which had been urged upon them by their chief Orgetorix. Constantly pressed upon by the Ger- mans from the North, the} r had determined to leave their narrow valleys, and settle in the fertile lands which lay along the Bay of Biscay between the Garonne and the Loire. Two years had Ccesar in Helvetia. 41 passed in preparations for this movement, double harvests had been raised, and now, putting their women and children, their old and sick men into wagons drawn by oxen, they burned their villages behind them, and began their march. Their numbers, joined to the allied tribes who went with them, amounted to three hundred and sixty-eight thousand, of whom ninety-two thousand were hardy warriors. To oppose this force Caesar had only a single legion, but it was impossible to wait for more troops. If the Helvetians succeeded in leaving their country it would be immediately occupied by the Germans, whom the Romans confused with the Gauls under the common name of barbarians, and dreaded even more than they hated them. There were also only two roads by which they could take their journey to the west ; the narrow pass between the Rhone and the Jura mountains, called the Pas de TEcluse, and the easier way through Savoy, which belonged to Rome. Nothing could be more dangerous than to allow the passage of such an immense swarm of people through the Roman province. Caesar acted instantly. lie hurried to Marseilles, Avhen- he found his legion, and marched with it directly to Geneva. He was 42 Helvetia under the Romans. just in time to destroy a bridge over which the Helvetians would pass. It was scarcely done before they sent to ask for a passage. If that were refused, there were several places where they could ford the river. Csesar put off his answer for a fortnight ; and he used the fortnight well. At every spot where the river could be passed he raised walls and threw up forts, and on the fifteenth of April, he refused to allow them to enter Savoy. They tried boats ; they tried to storm the intrench- ments, but were steadily beaten back, and turned aside to the Pas de TEcluse. Savoy was safe, but the march of the Helvetians could not be checked without more troops. Csesar marched back to Italy, gathered together three old legions, raised two new ones, and, in an in- credibly short time, crossed Mount Genevre, and was back at the forts on the Rhone. He crossed that river above Lyons, and found the Helve- tians crossing the Sacine, an operation which had taken them already twenty days. In one day he had put a bridge across the river, and the Helve- tians, struck with terror at the sight of six Roman legions, asked for peace. Their chief, Orgetorix, had died on the way, and the command had fallen on Divico, who was now old and feeble. He had A Helvetian Defeat. 43 an interview \\ith Csesar, but could not bring himself to accept the Roman general's terms, that the Helvetians should, return by the same way that they had come, that they should pay for the damage they had done on their march, and give hostages for their obedience. He answered that they had been more used to ask for hostages than to give them, and they at once resumed their march. Caesar, who was in sore need of supplies, leaving the Helvetians for the moment, struck off towards Bibracte, on Mount Beauvray. Unfortunately for themselves, the Helvetians mistook this for a re- treat. They turned to pursue the Romans ; and that they should attack him was just what Ca3sar wanted. They were beaten in a hand to hand combat, which lasted from noon until night. Half their fighting-men were killed, and the rest, with the miserable remnant of women and children, surrendered. The Roman general treated them with great kindness. He allowed a few to settle in Gaul, and the rest were sent back to their own country, and given food until their next crop should grow. They rebuilt their deserted villages, and lived under the name of "allies of Rome," protected by that title from their northern ene- 44 Helvetia under the Romans. mies. " Caesar," says Montaigne, " gave them as garrison only the memory of his gentleness and clemency." The so-called independence of the mountaineers lasted only six years, after which they became subject to Rome, without conditions. The people living in the valley of the Rhone, had, unluckily, asserted their idea of freedom by pillaging the traders who took their way into Italy by the dif- ferent Alpine passes. To keep this disposition in check, the Romans established a camp near Mar- tigny, which camp was, not long after, fiercely attacked by the barbarians, and though they lost ten thousand men in the encounter, the Roman general Galba was obliged to withdraw, and es- tablished himself nearer Geneva. The Rhsetians, who lived in the valley of the upper Rhine, managed to escape Roman rule a few years longer. They had been known as Trus- cans, or Hetruscans, in Italy, where they had lived in the valley of the Arno, and had been famous for their civilized and luxurious habits. Driven from their country by an invasion of the Gauls, they had taken refuge in the Alpine solitudes, and gradually changed characters with their conquer- ors; thus anticipating the modern theory, that Woman's Bravery. 45 character is simply the product of climate and natural surroundings. They had faithfully kept their old language through all changes, so that the Ladinum of the Engadine and the Romansch of the north slope of the Alps, are to this day essentially the same with the speech of two thousand years ago. Rome would no longer leave them undisturbed. Octa- vianus Augustus sent an army against them, about 16 B. c., which conquered, and almost destroyed them. Even the women fought for their country, and, when all was lost, hurled their young chil- dren at the Roman soldiers, and rushed forward to meet their own death. The small remnant of their tribe crossed the Rhine, and found a refuge in the Carpathian mountains, which the far-reach- ing hand of Rome had not yet seized. Under Roman rule, began in Helvetia that characteristic industry, which, joined to its deter- mined courage, made the nation all it afterwards became. Under a peaceful government of a hun- dred years, the improvement in the country was very great. Good roads were made and kept open, forests were cut down, the land was ploughed and cultivated, while its timber found a market on the lower Rhine. The towns also nourished, and 46 Helvetia under the Romans. had become so Romanized during the long reign of Augustus that they built temples in his honor, and adored him after his death. The principal families generally added some distinguished Roman name to their own, and public monuments were dedicated to these noble patrons, at the time that the name of their native leader, Divico, was almost forgotten, and the light of their national existence put out by the blaze of Roman glory. Helvetians who lived in Rome were obliged to give up their country and their kindred, except in those rare cases where they obtained the privilege of consan- guinity. On the other hand, Roman senators, whose business or pleasure brought them to the provinces, were given the title of ambassadors, and, though without missions, were allowed to live at the expense of the country they were in. The burden of this honor was very heavy upon the provinces that were doomed to bear it ; as these ambassadors, not contented with simply liv- ing in luxury, laid hands upon anything that struck them as being curious or desirable, and were known even to carry off statues out of the temples. The revenues which the provinces yield- ed were collected by public officers, who were in EYRIE OF THE GOLDEN EAGLE. Roman Vengeance. 49 the habit of farming it out to tax-gatherers, who increased the burdens of the people four-fold. In spite of these hardships Helvetia prospered, until the troubles of Rome herself began. One emperor followed another in quick succession murdering and murdered in his turn, by the help of the corrupt legions. The Helvetians scarcely knew when their rulers were changed, and this ignorance brought about a catastrophe for them- selves. There was in the country a Roman legion, signifiantly called Rapax, part of which had pro- claimed Yitellius emperor. The Helvetians, igno- rant of Galba's death, and supposing Vitellius to be a rebel, arrested the centurion and soldiers who had taken up his cause. "C'dtait plus qu'une crime; c'dtait line b^tise." The commander of the legion hastened to fulfil his duty before the provincials should find out their mistake, and show their repentance. His troops arrived, burning with the desire to exterminate a people that had dared to lay its hands upon Roman soldiers. The details of their vengeance are few, but the destruction of the people of Aventicum must have been complete, as the next emperor Vespasian repeopled it with a colony of veterans. A monumental stone, found fifteen centuries later 50 Helvetia under the Romans. under the ruins of the city, cotmmemorates a sad story of the time. On the approach of the Roman commander, Cecina, the people of Aventicum sent out messengers to ask for peace, but Cecina insisted upon a surrender without conditions, and upon the execution of the chief magistrate Julius Alpinus. " By a lone wall a lonelier column rears A gray and grief-worn aspect of old days ; 'Tis the last remnant of the wreck of years, And looks as with the wild, bewildered gaze Of one to stone converted by amaze, Yet still with consciousness; and there it stands, Making a marvel that it not decays, When the coeval pride of human hands, Levelled Aventicum, hath strewn her subject lands. " And there O sweet and sacred be the name ! Julia the daughter, the devoted gave Her youth to heaven; her heart, beneath a claim Nearest to heaven's, broke o'er a father's grave. Justice is sworn 'gainst tears, and hers would crave The life she lived in; but the judge was just; And then she died on him she could not save. Their tomb was simple, and without a bust, And held within their urn one mind, one heart, one dust." The city of Baden was also sacked and de- stroyed, and the Roman soldiery clamored for nothing less than the ruin of the whole people, but Peace. 51 / at length a deputation of the Helvetians obtained mercy, and, on Vespasian's coming to the throne, a time of peace succeeded. This emperor's father had made a large fortune in Helvetia, as a merchant which may account for the interest always shown in the country by the son, who did everything that he could to bring about the return of its prosperity. A hundred years of peace followed, during which the country had schools and profes- sors of the sciences known at the time. Pliny is full of descriptions, obtained from these savants, of the rare animals, fish, plants, and minerals of their mountains. Other writers notice their progress in agriculture, and give due praise to Helvetic cheese and Rhsetian wines. Travellers speak of their towns and public monuments, and of the temples in which they adored all the gods of the Pantheon, in addition to the genius of every hill and tree, and the spirits of the dead. So lived and died generation after generation, whose remote joys and sorrows have vanished beyond our knowledge. There is not left even the date when this age of peace and progress was abruptly closed, at the approach of the most wide spreading calamity hitherto known. No one can now say which of the mighty host of barbarians 52 Helvetia under the Homans. that poured in upon the Roman empire, between the third and fifth centuries, swept away Helvetia in its path. During that terrible period the de- struction of a nation was an every-day matter, and one more or less could scarcely signify to the world at large. There only remains the one eloquent fact that four hundred years after the Christian era, the name even of Helvetia was forgotten. CHAPTER III. HELVETIA UNDER THE FRANKS. THE EARLY CHURCH. [ A. D. 400 to 900. ] DURING the long period of the dying agony of Rome, there was little left to tell of the past prosperity of the Helvetian cities. In A. D. 400, when the country emerged from the mist which had settled down upon it, it was thinly covered with a mixed population of Vandals, Burgundians, Alemanni, Ostrogoths, Franks, and Lombards. Again it was beginning to recover somewhat from its ruined condition, when there burst upon Europe from the ends of the earth "the scourge of God," the destroyer of nations, Attila, with his half a million Huns. Their faces were so hideous as to appear scarcely human, and their actions were less human still. Very little is known of this last plague, as it fell upon Helvetia, but there remains 53 54 Helvetia under the Franks. a tradition of the general destruction that accom- panied it. About the end of the fifth century, the country was divided into three parts ; the northern occu- pied by the Alemanni ; Rhtetia, which included, besides Suabia and the Tyrol, the centre and southeastern part of the present Switzerland, and belonged to the Ostrogoths ; while the Burgun- dians were settled on both sides of the Jura, wherever the French and Romansch tongues are now spoken. The new masters of the country ruled very differently in the three divisions. The Alemanni governed as conquerors pure and simple, and made all their laws merely for them- selves, their herds of buffaloes, their stags, and shepherd dogs, and the mares which supplied them with their daintiest food. In upper Rhsetia, how- ever, the Ostrogoths ruled with a gentler hand. The slavery of the conquered people was softened to them by the permission to keep many of their own customs. In Rhsetia, also, the old Roman fortresses were left undestroyed, and new ones were built, from which the powerful counts governed, in the name of their Italian king, the valleys upon which they looked down. It was reserved for the Burgurdians, a race of Clovis. 57 Swedish descent, to give an example of toleration and humanity rare indeed in those days. They left to the natives one-third of their fields, half their woods and gardens, and two-thirds of their own slaves. At the same time they took up the customs and language which they found, and mingling them gradually with their own, the two nations at last became as one people. Gondebaud, the last of these Burgundian rulers, had even gone so far as to make a code of laws, by which even- handed justice was to be dealt out to every one in his realm, natives, Romans, and other strangers alike. Moreover, he rebuilt Geneva, which had been twice destroyed in the last Roman wars ; and it was from the old castle at Geneva, that his niece Clotilda departed to marry Clovis, the King of the Franks. Her uncle had been afraid to refuse her to the powerful neighbor, who sent as the pledges of betrothal, a gold piece, a penny, and a ring ; and Clotilda stepped down from her room over the ancient gateway, to begin her journey in immense state in a car drawn by four oxen. Clovis soon after undertook the conquest of his bride's native land, and extending his power over Suabia and Helvetia, also, in 550, the whole 58 Helvetia under the Franks. country was once more united under a single master, the Frankish king. The Franks again divided the land into two parts, according to the differences of language and manners, and under their rule, the feudal system was quickly developed. Vast tracts of land were secured forever to the families of great nobles, while under them commandants or counts were placed over districts, which were again subdivided to captains, who held them in fee or fief. A yearly assembly was held, in the beginning of March, to make laws, by which the lower classes, the citizens, freedmen, and slaves should be governed. The slaves had part of their time for themselves, on their furnishing certain dues to their masters, such as eggs, chickens, and bread. Still they were simply chattels, and could be punished, given away, or sold at the discretion of the masters. They were united without any form of marriage, and the children were the property of their masters. Zschokke ends these details with "so barbarous and savage were those times.'' Nevertheless, the times showed signs of improve- ment ; with the Franks came the ox and the plough, and something of domestic comfort, and very soon a great impulse was given to civilization by the Einsiedeln. 59 spread of Christianity. Already, in the time of the Romans, the new faith had been brought to a few places in Helvetia, by soldiers, converted in other countries, or by men of high rank, who had followed the example of the apostles, and jour- neyed forth, to enlighten the world. A king's son called Lucius, risked his life in the Rheetian mountains with this object, and St. Bent, an Englishman, who had been converted at Rome, spent his latter days in the hermitage, on the northern shore of the Lake of Thiin. Very vague, and, possibly, fabulous, are these traditions, but soon after the conquest of 550, there came to Helvetia men, whose names, well known in sober history, are among the greatest of the early church. Among the mountains which surround the Lake of Lucerne, lived the pious Meinrad, one of the nobler spirits of his day, who, feeling that the times were out of joint, and that he was powerless to set them right, withdrew to the remote depths of the Finsterwald, and there built the narrow cell on whose site stands the celebrated Abbey of Einsiedeln. " 'Mid savage rocks, and seas of snow, that shine Between interminable tracts of pine, Within a temple stands an awful shrine, 60 Helvetia under the Franks. By an uncertain light revealed, that falls On the mute image and the troubled walls. O give not me that eye of hard disdain, That views, undimmed, Einsiedeln's wretched fane, While ghastly faces through the gloom appear, Abortive joy, and hope that works in fear; While prayer contends with silenced agony, Surely in other thoughts contempt may die. If the sad grave of human ignorance bear One flower of hope, O pass, and leave it there!" There Meinrad passed his hermit's life, in voluntary poverty, and there he came to his end, being murdered by two robbers, whom he had hospitably taken in for a night's lodging. His pet ravens, pursued the murderers, flew at them and pecked them, and would not be driven away. It was in vain that the wretched men took refuge in an inn; the birds beat against the window, and their strange conduct at last led to the discovery of the crime. Long years have changed Meinrad's cell into an imperial abbey, which stands in sharp contrast to the desolation around it ; silken vestments, stiff with embroidery, have taken the place of his old hair cowl, while his shabby wooden cup has been turned by the magic of devotion into golden vessels sparkling with jewels. One hundred and fifty thousand pilgrims have PILGIU M > A Sigisbert. 63 been counted in the course of a year at the shrine of the Black Virgin of Einsiedeln, where they seek for remission of their sins, or drink, at the fountain in the convent square, the water which cures all bodily and spiritual ailments. The water flows through fourteen spouts, carved to imitate the heads of strange beasts and birds, and pilgrims must drink of every one, lest they should miss the one, which, by a remarkable exercise of faith, is said to have refreshed our Lord himself. " How gayly murmur and how sweetly taste The fountains reared for them amid the waste!" Sigisbert came also from the country of the Franks, preaching in the wilderness of Rhaetia, and finally settling on the site of the present Disentis, a town of great antiquity. It was not the life of a recluse to which he felt himself called. The companion of St. Gall, and the pupil of Columba, he sought his converts among the wild hunters and herdsmen of that beautiful region. These men were half savage still, and in the depths of their forests practised the strange rites by which they sacrificed to their idols. At the new year, they made a horrible uproar, shouting and crying, and beating on drums, to drive away the evil 64 Helvetia under the Franks. spirits, while on the first night of spring great bonfires blazed on all their mountains, as thank- offerings to/ the good gods. From Disentis, Sigisbert preached to all the surrounding country, and met no interference, until Placidus, a rich man of the neighborhood, proposed to found a convent in the place of the monk's habitation. Victor I., the governor of Chur, found his patience exhausted by this innovation. He fought against the new establishment with all his force, and, at last, had Placidus beheaded. The governor himself was soon drowned in the Rhone, and then the church and convent rapidly rose, according to the original plans, being en- dowed by the governor's own grandson, in the seventh century. St. Gall, another of St. Columba's pupils, has given his name, not only to the monastery which took the place of his log hut, but also to one of the cantons. The arms of St. Gall are the Roman fasces on a green ground ; and as the bundle of sticks cannot be broken together, so he and his companions accomplished their work by their per- fect unity of purpose. Gall had come with his master Columba to preach Christianity in German Helvetia, but they were drawn into a dispute St. GaU. 67 with the pagans about their idols, and were forced to retire, shaking the dust off their feet against the obstinate heathen. At this juncture, Gall's imagination and zeal were fired by the account he heard from one of his deacons, a hunter, of a beautiful valley surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains covered with snow and ice. This valley was watered by a cool river, where the wild beasts of the forest repaired to quench their thirst. Taking the deacon with him, he journeyed through the forest of Arbon, and up into the mountains, until his choice fell upon a spot where the little river Steinach falls over the rocks of an upland valley. The deacon, however, utterly dis- approved of this place as the scene of his future labors. His knowledge of wolves and bears had taught him that reverence is a quality in which they are totally deficient ; and, knowing all their haunts, he represented to Gall the dangers to which he would be exposed. To this Gall paid no attention whatever. He quietly went on with his preparations, consecrated the place, and put up a small cross of hazelwood. On the very first night a bear paid him a visit of observation ; but with true politeness, the saint offered him part of 68 Helvetia under the Franks. his supper, which he instantly accepted, and then trotted quietly home. After this he was left undisturbed, and with the help of his two disci- ples, Theodor and Mang, he built a small log-hut and wooden chapel on the spot where the abbey church of St. Gall now stands. The seed thus sown was not left to perish. The king's chamber- lain gave him the land where he had been only a stranger and pilgrim. The bishop of Constance, a newly established see, and the judge of Arbon, supplied him with help in the shape of laborers and wood-cutters, until a busy settlement sprang up around the two solitary buildings. Meanwhile the special object of the mission was not forgotten. Gall constantly taught the wild people he had come to seek, and spent even more time in training his disciples as teachers and preachers. For twenty-six years he continued this last crowning work of his life, with no thought of change, refusing even the vacant bishopric of Con- stance, and died about A. D. 640, still engaged in teaching, at the age of ninety-six. His work lived after him ; large bequests were made to his little colony, and hundreds of pilgrims came to visit the grave of the old man, who was reported to have worked miraculous cures, pilgrims who had not St. Fridolin. 69 been attracted by the daily miracle of his pious life. Later the abbey was founded and richly endowed by King Pepin, in the eighth century. It received as gifts many large estates in Alsace, in Suabia, and in Zurich, and was soon able to purchase others, until it rose to a high point of prosperity. To this day St. Gall has reason to be proud of its Roman Catholic schools, and its grand old convent library. " How sweet that valley, clothed in freshest green, With its neat city ! whose white shining walls And village-like circumference scarce recalls The form of any city we have seen, But looks like some small picture, so serene And still it lies!" Still another of the Swiss saints was Fridolin, who came from the country of the Franks, and wandered along the Lake of Zurich, looking for a spot to found a church. In the valley at the foot of the Glarnisch, he built one, dedicated to St. Hilarius, which name, corrupted into Glaris, or Glarus, was afterwards given to the small canton which lies between Schwyz, St. Gall, and Grisons. Glarus shows in the arms of the canton neither knightly bearings nor wild beast and bird, but bears as its symbol the figure of the peaceful 70 Helvetia under the Franks. Fridolin, while almost every family names a son Friedli, in his honor. "We have lingered over the account of these fathers of the Swiss church, because they were the centre of the civilization which alone burns with a cheerful light, in the darkness of those early times. They alone possessed the gentleness, the wisdom, and the learning of the age ; and all the kindred spirits of their time flocked about them, to learn the principles of a better life, and to spread those principles abroad, in wider and still wider circles. Their ecclesiastical records are meagre indeed ; they have not often cared to preserve the names even of the dignitaries of the church ; that of the bishop of Lausanne is not mentioned for two centuries, nor the bishop of Basel's for four, while the bishops of Sion are seldom spoken of at all. But their deeds have survived their names. Under them the people were taught agriculture and rural economy ; from the monks they learned to burn lime, &nd to replace their wretched huts with small houses of stone, while their garments of skins were changed for woollen clothes which they wove for themselves. The waste lands were broken up, and good roads built ; from Sigisbert's Clerical Influence. 73 convent of Disentis the people spread into the valley of Urseren, and on the heights near Lake Leman they even cultivated the vine. At St. Gall, the noble library grew out of the record- chamber established by Abbot Gotzbert in 843, and among the fifteen hundred volumes which it contains many are curious for their rarity, or wonderful for the learning of their authors. There may still be seen the Encyclopaedia of Salo- mon, the oldest lexicon of Germany; and the works of Gerolt and the Eckhardts, with the beautifully written volumes of Folkert and Sin- tram. In the seminary,- sciences were cultivated with such success that, in the ninth and tenth cen- turies, it became one of the most famous schools in Europe ; and, later, the German emperors and em- presses were delighted to correspond with the learned monks, and to borrow books from their library. Throughout the country the clergy, generally, lived in an extremely simple way, and they and their families were bright examples among other households; for in those days celibacy of the clergy was not yet thought necessary, and we find a married bishop of Coire, helped in his good works by his wife, the Countess Aesopeia. Many 74 Helvetia under the Franks. Christian lords during this period improved the condition of their subjects, and gave their serfs privileges, which rendered their hard lot more endurable. The nobles, who had led a wild and law- less life, found in the convents retreats, where, by prayer and penance, they could earn forgiveness for the sins of their youth. And thus the power of the church spread, and the country prospered, through the three centuries and a half of Frankish rule. CHAPTER IV. CITIES AND CITIZENS. THE EMPEKOK RODOLF. [A. D. 900 TO 1291.] T TNDER the weak descendants of Charle- \^_J magne the empire of the Franks melted rapidly away, and Helvetia was once more divided. The upper part, from the Lake of Constance, or Boden-see, and the Rhine to the river Aar, and the St. Gothard, became part of the German empire, while the country which includes the present cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchatel, Berne, and Freiburg, fell to Burgundy. There followed a great deal of confusion in the relation of different authorities to each other. During the constant petty wars which prevailed, ambitious men saw their chance of gradually throwing off their allegiance to those above them. The dukes, who came next in rank to emperors and kings, set the example ; the duke of Suabia declined to obey any one ; the duke of Bur- 75 76 Cities and Citizens. gundy took the title of king. The counts followed closely in the footsteps of their lords, and they also set up their small armies, and ruled in state over their dominions. Even the bishops took a hint from their lay brethren, and set up their own troops, at the head of which they rode in casque and cuirass. Above all, the pope of Rome claimed absolute power over this mass of struggling dignita- ries, while the common people, looked on in alarm, and often voluntarily became vassels in order to secure their own safety. They put their persons and property under the protection of some lord or abbot, by conveying their land to him, and receiv- ing it back as a fief, for which they were to do homage and man-service, The result of this was somewhat curious, as it often happened that the peasants owed allegiance in two directions at once, and would be called upon to work for a monastery, and fight for a count at the same moment. Internal strife and conflicting duties, however, were sometimes reconciled in the face of a common danger, such as the invasion of the Hungarians, about 921, when Henry the Fowler was emperor of Germany. The Hungarians were a savage people from the river Danube and the Black Sea, who had been called across the Queen Bertha. 79 Alps as auxiliaries by the King of Burgundy. They ravaged the country they had been called upon to help, until the people cried out to be saved from their friends ; and, sweeping over the mountains and rivers that lay in their way, con- quered everj^thing except the strong fortresses and castles which they did not know how to besiege. It was during this invasion that the mother of the king of Burgundy, the good Queen Bertha whose distaff is still a proverb, took refuge in a tower, where Xeuchatel now stands ; and it was at the same time that the Tour de Gourge and other strongholds were built that are still known as the castles of Queen Bertha. " Ah! who, that reads the tale of days gone by, But loves to turn yet turns with half a sigh Back to the good old times, the golden age, When first thy name sheds brightness o'er the page ! Times full of teaching for those yet to run, When Bertha on her palfrey rode and spun." The result of this last barbaric invasion was the emperor's order that all large villages throughout the land should be surrounded by walls, ramparts and ditches to keep off these enemies for the future. Tliis was done at Basel, Zurich, and St. Gall, where, in 953, the abbot Auno built a wall with no less 80 Cities and Citizens. than thirteen towers. Like the block-houses of our forefathers, and the military posts of our present frontier, there were thus places of refuge provided, where the families of the neighborhood could repair in case of danger. One third of the crops was also to be deposited in their villages and towns, and one ninth of the number of free and noble men were ordered to live in the fortresses, that they might be ruled in peace, and defended in war. Those who had but little landed property were generally chosen, and this was the origin of their city councils. Many new cities were also built, often on the sites of old Roman towns, such as Lucerne and Solothurn. Solothurn, indeed, claims still greater antiquity, and points with pride, to a picture in which her burghers are standing on the walls, and looking complacently at the creation of Adam and Eve. The clock tower of Solothurn is sup- posed to have been built by the Romans, and Lucerne may take her name from the same source. Schaffhausen, also, which had been a mere little cluster of boat-houses near the Falls of the Rhine, now rose into importance under the patronage of the monks of All Saints, though it was not until Queen Bertha. 81 the thirteenth century that it reached the rank of an imperial city. At this period, A. D. 1000, many new monas- teries were also built, an impulse being given to the work by the prevailing belief that the end of the world was at hand. That of Payerne was founded by Queen Bertha, and it was at its conse- cration that she pronounced the following curse against all persons who should disturb the peace of her monks. " Let their names be blotted out of the book of life, let their bodies feel a foretaste of the pains of hell." The fierceness of her denun- ciations seems to have been entirely confined to her official life, for her time was spent in a succes- sion of gentle acts of help and kindness. " From her palace forth The young fair queen came pacing. But here no pompous guard was set, No flattering concourse gathered round ; The poor about her gate were met; The readiest place the poorest found. Kind gifts to some, kind words to more ; Kind looks to each and all she gave, Which on with them through life they bore, And down into their grave." The remains of Queen Bertha were discovered in the beginning of this century, and now rest in 82 Cities and Citizens. the building she had herself designed, under a monument, the materials of which were taken from the ruins of the ancient Aventicum, near lay. Within a few years there might still be seen, at an inn near Bayerne, the saddle on which she " rode and spun," with a place to hold the end of the distaff, a fact which is to be taken as conclusively proving its ownership. The little Swiss song of the spin- ning wheel keeps the memory of the good queen's homely work alive in the peasant's cottage. " Just as we spin, of old 'tis said Queen Bertha used to twine the thread, I spin. And with our wheels and merry song Winter's dark hours flow blithely on. We spin, my girl and I." In 1032, on the death of the last king of Burgundy, the rest of Helvetia came also under German rule. Now that the country was united under one feudal lord, the work of civilization went on quickly. To the ancient cities of Geneva and Lausanne, were added, in the northern part of Burgundian Helvetia, two new and very import- ant ones. Berne and Freiburg are compared, in an old song of the thirteenth century, to two fine oxen sharing the same meadow, and it is remark- Berne. 85 able that through differences of customs, sympa- thies, and religion, they generally remained allies and friends. Freiburg was built first, in what had been known since the Roman time as the Nechtland, or desert. It was founded by the imperial bailiff, Berchtold IV., Duke of Zahringen, in imitation of his uncle, who had built a Freiburg of his own in Germany. He intended the new city as a check upon the fast growing power of nobles and ecclesiastics, and therefore sought to attract settlers by the promise of liberties and privileges similiar to those enjoyed by the free towns of Germany. The monks of Payerne withstood the building of the new church with such a violent opposition that Duke Berchtold was obliged to carry it on like the rebuilders of the temple of old ; " every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded ; " and his letters to the city began with " greeting and victory over the enemy." Berne was built by Berchtold's son and successor, twelve years later, in 1191. Different derivations are given for the name Berne, but the only one that satisfies a true citizen of the ancient town, is that given by the old recorder Justinger, who wrote at the end of the fourteenth century. " How the 86 Citiex and Citizens. town was called Berne !" There were many wild animals in the oak wood, and Duke Berchtold determined the town should be called after the first that was caught there, so the first that was caught was a bear, and the town was called Berne, and he gave the burghers a shield and armorial bearings, namely, a black bear on a white field. The citizens of the two new towns were obliged to undertake certain duties in return for all the privileges granted to them. They- were to pay taxes, to keep in every house a sword and spear for the common defence, and a fire bucket, because many of the houses were built of wood. Markets were established, where the country people came to exchange the surplus products of their flocks and fields for the manufactured articles of the towns. The citizens chose their own magistrates, and a council, presided over by a sort of mayor, who bore the title of avoyer. This council decided all trifling questions, while the more important ones were settled by the governor, who Avas either an imperial bailiff, count's lieutenant, or abbot's vicar, according to the direction of the city's allegiance. As the comforts of the citizens increased, and their manners softened, their growing strength Village Customs. 87 won them the respect and envy of the nobles living in their isolated castles. They, too, strove with might and main to extend their power, and served kings, dukes, and convents to obtain new fiefs, or made little wars among themselves for the sake of spoil. Those among them who better understood their true interests, lightened the servitude of their peasant surfs, that human property which had gone with the soil, " man, beast and tree." They divided arable or pasture land into small holdings of about twelve acres, and also allowed portions of the forest to be cleared, and villages to be built upon the open spaces, which are still called Schwanden and Riiti, from words signifying to clear. They were also given all the wood they needed, and were allowed to gather acorns for their pigs, and to have free range for their cattle as far as the next farm or village. The master gave them wood for building, carts, ploughs, and other implements, a cow for the stable, pigs and fowls for the yard. This expenditure returned to the masters in largely increased revenues. The peasants did man- service in their lord's fields, and cart-work for his castle ; they paid tithes and taxes on all their crops and cheese, cloth, hens, and eggs as house-rent. 88 Cities and Citizens. They paid also for the act of dying, for all children who had lost their father, gave to their lawful superior the best beast in the stall, the best piece of furniture in the house, and the best garment in the chest. Among these enlightened noblemen, the counts of Gruyere especially distinguished themselves. They cultivated the whole of the valley where the Tour d'Oex now stands, and settled the younger branches of their family there. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, there were many great families and titles that have now become extinct. There were the counts of Savoy in Valais and in Vaud, and the bishop of Lausanne, who reigned as a petty sovereign in the latter district. The counts of Neuchatel ruled on the Lake of Bienne, and the counts of Kyburg over the country between Zurich and Lake Con- stance. They built the towns of Diepenhoffen on the Rhine and of Winterthur near Zurich, and the castle of Kyburg, with the six towers which have defied ages of stormy weather both natural and political. The Rapperschwyls and Toggenburgs were estab- lished on the Lake of Zurich, and in the marches of Rhsetia; and it was from a window of the castle of Toggenburg that Count Henry threw his The Crusades. 91 beautiful wife, Ida, in a fit of mistaken jealousy. From the castle of Toggenburg, the hero of Schiller's ballad went forth to the crusades, after having been refused by the lady of his love. " Sadly not a word she said To the heart she wrung, Sadly clasped he once the maid ; On his steed he sprung! ' Up, my men of Swisserland ! Up, awake the brave ! ' Forth they go the red-cross band To the Saviour's grave. " High your deeds and great your fame, Heroes of the tomb ! Glancing through the carnage, came Many a dauntless plume ; Terror of the Moorish foe, Toggenburg, thou art! " The crusades at the time were the object, indeed, not only of rejected lovers, but of all the youth and chivalry of Helvetia. Nor was it confined to the young and brave. Poor and rich, kings, princes, and children, even nuns and princesses, departed for the East in multitudes. Of the thousands who went to the holy wars, few returned to tell of their sufferings. They perished by the sword, by famine, and disease, by plague and 92 The Emperor Rodolf. leprosy, by assassination, or by a slower death in the prisons of the infidel. During the time of the crusades, however, the townspeople grew rich from the active trade which was necessary to equip and provision such large bodies of men. Zurich and Basel profited especially by the in- crease of business ; for which the situation of both was extremely favorable. Zurich, on the route to Italy by the Lake of Walensted and the St. Goth- ard, was crowded with innkeepers, tax-gatherers, and traders of all descriptions, while Basel, built at the place where the Rhine becomes navigable, flourished by the increased commerce of France and Germany. In all the towns, the burghers became more and more enterprising, and extended their limits by purchase, or ransomed themselves from the oppressive sovereignty of abbots or counts. Becoming thus enfranchised, they were then known as " immediate," that is to say depend- ent upon the German empire alone, and governed by an imperial bailiff. Such was the condition of many of the towns about the time of the birth of Count Rodolf of Habsburg in 1248. This young man, the first to exalt a family which was to rule at one time as the greatest in the old and new worlds, and which still reigns with circumscribed 3UKG. Rodolf elected Emperor. 95 glory over the Austrian empire, came of the old house of the Gon trans of Alsace. One ivy-grown tower remains to mark the site of the castle of Habsburg, where his family had its principal abode. In his youth Rodolf was possessed of a violent ambition, which made him hated by his nearest relations, and brought him twice under the ban of the church. Towards middle age his temper softened, and he gained the character of a very able and just man. His soldiers, especially, idolized his bravery and the simplicity of his manners ; and were never tired of telling of their having seen him mending his old blue doublet with the same hand which had given the signal for attack in fourteen victories. Several cities re- quested him to become their bailiff, on account of his reputation for honesty, and Zurich with Uri and Schwyz, chose him for general. With Basel he was on bad terms, and was vigorously besieging that city, when the news arrived that he was elect- ed emperor of Germany, chosen, " because he was wise and just, and beloved of God and men." Then the Basel people came forth from their gates, and peace was concluded with a general shaking of hands. Though Rodolf became emperor, he did not forget that he was Swiss. Throughout his 96 The Emperor Rodolf. reign he gave constant proofs of the strong attach- ment which he felt for his native country. In return the people showed their gratitude, by fur- nishing willingly the supplies of men and money which he required, in the constant wars which he kept up until his death in 1291, after a prosperous reign of eighteen years. CHAPTER V. REBELLION AGAINST AUSTRIA. [A. D. 1291 TO 1307. ] THERE is a secret recess at the foot of the high Alps, where the mountains stand about a lake of almost unrivalled beauty. There the last of the Cymbri had fled after the Roman victories, and there their descendants, a race of shepherds, fed their flocks on the pathless moun- tains. Their inheritance was the fertile valleys lying between the mountains and a rich plain on the south side of the Lake of Lucerne. The people of the valley districts of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, were of one race, and held a tradi- tion, preserved in their old songs, that their ancestors had come from Suecia or Sweden, driven from the north by famine. Their fair hair and complexion, and great height, seemed to confirm this account of their origin, which Gustavus 97 98 Rebellion against Austria. Adolphus quoted in the sevente'enth century, as giving him a claim upon the friendship of Schwyz. For centuries they had but one government and one church, the Abbey of Einsiedeln, where they repaired a few times in the year, being called by the sound of the Alpine horn. During the twelfth century, the churches increased, and the Unterwal- den people went to the convent of Engelberg, built by the young baron, Conrad von Seldenbiiren. Wandering in search of some retired spot, he heard a choir of angels singing, in the wild solitude at the foot of the Titlis mountain. " It is the hill of angels," he exclaimed ; and immediately began the building in the deep valley, where the sun shines for a few weeks only every year, but where the pious ear may still hear at intervals the angels song. " When first mine eyes beheld that famous hill, The sacred Engelberg; celestial bands, With intermingling motions soft and still, Hung round its top, on wings that changed their hues at will. Clouds do not name those visitants ; they were The very angels whose authentic lays, Sung from that heavenly ground in middle air, Made known the spot where piety should raise A holy structure to the Almighty's praise." AXEN CLIFF AND ROAD. The WaldsWten. 101 At the time of the founding of Engelberg, the three districts known as the Waldstatten, were already divided into three small republics, ruling themselves after a very simple fashion. Each valley chose its own council of justice, which settled its own affairs. Matters that concerned all three, they discussed together, and if they could not agree, they brought the subject to be decided by some impartial judge, generally one of the Counts of Lenzburg, who were their protectors at the imperial court. About the court and the emperor they troubled themselves very little, until circumstances brought about a collision with those higher powers. So little was known of this shepherd people by the outside world, that when the emperor, Henry II, granted to the Abbey of Einsiedeln, the lands surrounding it, their inhabitants were no more taken into account than were the Indians of our own country by the different European sover- eigns, who bestowed large tracts on their deserv- ing subjects. Troubles soon ensued. The shep- herds belonging to the monastery claimed the right, which had belonged to the peasants from time immemorial, to feed their flocks on the Alps. They appealed to the emperor, who decided for 102 Rebellion against Austria. the monks, and put the resisting peasants under his ban. The bishop of Constance followed with the excommunication of the church ; but ban and excommunication were alike met with a stubborn defiance. " If the protection of the emperor does not secure us our rights, we have no further need of it," said the Schwyzers, and Uri and Unter- walden agreed with them. Their natural right was before that of bishop or emperor, they com- pelled their priests to perform divine service as before ; their meadows were fertile, and their flocks multiplied, in spite of the bishop's curse, and they quietly took the produce of their flocks to market at Zurich or Lucerne. Under the emperor Rodolf, these districts enjoyed the freedom of the rest of Switzerland, but a new emperor arose, with very different aims and desires from his father. The family of Habs- burg, in addition to the countship, had become dukes of Austria, and it was the ambition of Albert, to take advantage of his tenure of the imperial power, which was not hereditary, to unite all Switzerland into an appanage of his family. This the Waldstatten stoutly resisted, and, fore- seeing the evil times in store for them, assembled, in the first year of Albert's reign, and swore to a Oppression. 103 " perpetual bond," agreeing to defend themselves " with goods and chattels against all who should attack them." It was with the intention of punishing them for this, that Albert departed from the usual custom of naming a nobleman as their protector or bailiff, and dispatched to Switzerland two creatures of his own, who might be relied on to carry out his plans. The two bailiffs took up their abode in the land and began a course of tyranny which was intended to drive the people from Albert's severity as emperor, to take refuge in his loving- kindness as duke of Austria. The mountaineers failed to see this subtile distinction, and were driven instead into independence. The persecu- tions began ; taxes were increased, small offences were punished by heavy fines and imprisonment, and every oppressive measure was carried out with an insolence which the high spirited people could not endure. Gessler, from the tower he had built in Uri ; Landenberg, from the king's castle near Sarnen, looked down upon the misery they had created, with keen enjoyment, but the end was not far off. Gessler passing by Stauffacher'a new house, sneered at " the fine way these peasants build." Landenberg at the same time seized the 104 Rebellion against Austria. oxen of Arnold of Melchthal, in punishment of . some pretended offence. The servant who took them from the plough said, insultingly, " Peasants can draw the plough themselves." Enraged at this Arnold struck the servant with a stick, and broke one of his fingers. He then fled to the moun- tains, where Landenberg did not care to pursue him, but avenged himself by seizing Arnold's old father, and putting out his eyes. This was the last blow, the Unterwalden was ripe for a revolt, and it was a woman's word that gave the final impulse. Werner Stauffacher's wife could not make herself happy, in the fine new house, while " the oppressed groaned and the oppressors laughed " in the valleys of the forest towns. She said to her husband, " shall we mothers nurse beggars at our bosoms, and bring up maid-servants for foreigners ? What are the men of the mountains good for ? Let there be an end of this ! " Stauffacher answered not a word, but went over the water to Uri, to the house of Walter Furst, in Attinghausen. There he found Arnold of Melchthal, hidden from the wrath of Landenberg. The three men discussed the miseries of their country; they remembered their vain appeals A Midnight Meeting. 105 against the cruelty of the bailiffs, and they agreed that their only hope was in themselves and in God, who had given to no king the right to rule so unjustly. They made up their minds that each of the three should go back to his own part of the country, to consult with the best and bravest men of his district, and see what could be done for liberty and safety. On the 17th of November, they were to meet at a meadow called the Riitli, far from all habitations, and midway between the three cantons. The night of the 17th came, and found that they had not counted in vain on the patriot- ism of their countrymen. Each one of the three had brought with him ten men, tried and true, who were resolved to hold by the old freedom of their fatherland. The three leaders raised their hands towards heaven, and swore to the Lord, before whom peas- ants and kings are equal, " faithfully to live and die for the rights of the people, to suffer no injus- tice, but also to commit none, and to undertake and carry out everything together, as one man." Then the thirty raised their hands in turn, and took the same oath to God and all the saints, manfully to strive for their liberty. Their cove- nant being made, they agreed to begin the work 106 Rebellion against Austria. on New Year's day, and went home to tend their cattle, unconscious that their place of meeting was to be famous hereafter, from that night's work. " There met high hearts at midnight hours, - Pure hands were raised to heaven, \ And vows were pledged that man should roam Through every Alpine dell, Free as the wind, the torrent's foam, The shaft of William Tell. And prayer, the full deep flow of prayer, Hallowed the pastoral sod, And souls grew strong for battle there, Nerved with the peace of God. Before the Alps and stars they knelt, That calm, devoted band, And rose, and made their spirits felt Through all the mountain land." The struggle for freedom was destined to begin even sooner than the little band had intended. The crisis was brought on by the well-known adventure of William Tell. Tell was one of the thirty who had met on the field of Riitli. Born in the little village of Burglen, he was famous for his skill as an archer, even in a place where every man was a good marksman ; and noted also for his quiet and determined character. Tell and the Apple. 109 "Mark this holy chapel well, The birth-place this of William Tell. To Nature and to Holy Writ Alone, did God the boy commit; Where flashed and roared the torrent, oft His soul found wings and soared aloft. The straining oar and chamois chase Had formed his limbs to strength and grace ; On wave and wind the boy would toss, Was great, nor knew how great he was. He knew not that his chosen hand, Made strong by God, his native land Would rescue from the shameful yoke Of slavery, the which he broke." Just at this time, the bailiff Gessler had devised a new method of exacting respect for his master. He set the ducal hat of Austria upon a pole in the market place of Altdorf, and ordered that every one who passed that way should do it reverence. William Tell refused, and was brought before the bailiff. "Insolent archer," exclaimed Gessler. " I will punish thee by means of thine own craft, I will set an apple on the head of thy son ; shoot it off, and fail not." In the words of the old Swiss song: "William Tell he scorned the hat, To death condemned was he for that, 110 Rebellion against Austria, Unless an apple, on the spot. From his own child' s head he shot. ' ' They bound the child, and placed him at a distance, with the apple on his head. Tell took good aim and his arrow pierced the apple. The people shouted in applause, but Gessler asked Tell why he held a second arrow in his hand. He answered at once " If the first had not pierced the apple, the second should have pierced thy heart." At this Gessler became furious ; he ordered Tell to be put in fetters, and taken to the boat in which he was going back to the castle at the other end of the lake. The wind was rising and a storm coming on, but the governor was afraid that a rescue might be attempted, and would hear of no delay. The boat put out, but the waves rose so high that the frightened tyrant ordered Tell's fetters to be taken off, so that he might steer the boat. He took the helm, and steered straight for the Axenberg, where a rock juts out like a shelf above the water. The boat struck the cliff ; there was an instant of confusion, and a sudden spring ; then the boat drifted off, leaving Tell in safety on the rock, where Tell's chapel now stands as a memorial of his escape. He was free for the moment, but how could his G-essler's Death. 113 country be free while Gessler lived ? His resolu- tion was taken ; if Gessler should escape the storm, then he should die on his way to Kiissnacht. Tell hid himself near the hollow way by which the governor must pass, and there meditated on the deed he was about to do. ' He must needs come along this hollow pass; No other road will lead to Kiissnacht. Now, Gessler, settle thy account with heaven ! 'Tis time thou wert gone hence, thy hour is up. My life was still and harmless. Save the beast That roams the forest, not a living thing E'er felt the shaft directed by my hand; No thought of murder ever stained my soul, But thou hast scared me from my peaceful haunts ; He who could make a mark of his child's head Can aim unerring at his foeman's heart." The bailiff passed, and Tell's keen eye and sure aim did not desert him. The bow was bent, and the true arrow struck the tyrant's heart. Nevertheless his action did not hasten the out- break which had been planned for New Year's day. That day had been fixed upon because the peasants were expected to bring presents of meat and game to the bailiffs, and so could appear at the castles in large numbers, without exciting suspicion. On 114 Rebellion against Austria. New Year's Eve, a young girl, whose lover was one of the conspirators, drew him up by a rope into the castle of Rossberg, and twenty of his friends followed in the same way. They proceeded to master the steward and his servants, and to secure the fortress, but made no noise until the morning. The next day, Landenberg left the castle near Sarnen, to go to mass. On his return he was met by twenty of the Unterwalden men, bringing lambs, fowls, and other presents. Such visitors were very acceptable, and the bailiff allowed them to enter the castle. As they came under the gate one of them sounded his horn, and the scene changed in a moment. Their innocent looking staves were fitted with sharp spear heads ; thirty more men sprang out of the thicket near by, and the castle was taken in a few minutes. Landen- berg and his men were taken to the Austrian frontier, and made to swear never to return, after which they were allowed to go in peace. Stauffacher with the men of Schwyz, seized the castle of Schwanau at the same time, while the people of Uri took Gessler's tower. The revo- lution was thorough, and successful, but save Gessler's, not one drop of Austrian blood had been spilt. On the next Sunday deputies from the three SCENE Df THE CANTON OF UW. Morgarten. 117 Waldstatten assembled, and renewed their original bond for ten years, with the understanding that it was to be a perpetual alliance, but often renewed. The peasants then went back quietly to their work. Tell, among the others, returning to the scene of his early toil and happiness in the little town of Altdorf. Seven years later, he appeared again at his country's call, to fight in the battle of Morgarten, the first of the great Swiss victories ; after which history knows him no more, until the moment of his death, which he met in a manner worthy of his life. "There's a little stream, the Schachen, Not far from Altdorf s walls, That downward to its parent, The Reuss, in tumult brawls; And dangerous in its current To feeble limb and hand, When those in lusty manhood Its force can scarce withstand. Old age had bowed Tell's figure, And blanched his dark-brown hair; The hand that clove the apple No more such deed might dare ; When in that raging torrent He saw a struggling child, While on the bank the mother, In helpless fright, ran wild. 118 Rebellion against Austria. The Switzer paused no moment ; Though prudence well might ask If yet the limb held vigor For such a venturous task. He plunged to do that rescue, He sunk to rise no more, Until, with weeds and timber, He floated dead to shore. And thus the great life ended : God ! was it not the best Of all the deeds of valor That won a hero's rest? So mused I by the Schachen; So say we true and well, That the last deed was the best deed, That closed the life of Tell! In these days of change, all the old historical landmarks, known to other generations, are liable to be taken up and put down in other places or even to be removed altogether. We are no longer allowed to love the Stuarts and hate Henry the VIII with the simplicity of fifty years ago, while the wave of progress has threatened to sweep William Tell away entirely. But many people are still found who will be disposed to share the feel- ing of the Waldstatten on this point. When Haller published his doubts as to the story of the apple, in 1760, they immediately burned the whole Was William Tell a Myth; 121 edition of his book, so that a copy can scarcely now be found. As to Tell's existence, one would imagine it sufficiently vouched for, by the presence of a hundred people who had known him in life, at the dedication of the memorial chapel, only thirty years after his death. The details of the story do not signify so nmch. They form only the drapery of the figure which stands to this day, one of the few heroes who have been able so to forget themselves, and so to inspire other men with self-forge tf ulness, as to obtain with them a nation's freedom. Tell lives still in the music of Rossini, and in Schiller's magnificent play, and, deeper yet, he lives safely in the people's songs and in the faithful hearts of his countrymen. The great enemy of the Waldstatten, the emperor Albert, soon lost all power to trouble his subjects. In the month of May, he was marching against the Swiss with a large body of troops, when he was murdered by a small party of knights headed by his nephew, John of Austria, whom he had kept out of his inheritance of Habsburg. The dying man was left by the roadside, and drew his last breath in the arms of a poor peasant woman, who chanced to be passing by. His death was terribly avenged by his widow and children, espe- 122 Rebellion against Austria. cially by his daughter Agnes, the widowed Queen of Hungary. All the relations of the conspirators were pursued with unrelenting fury. As the blood of sixty-three innocent gentlemen flowed at Agnes' feet, she cried out that she was bathing in May dew. Some years later she built and endowed the rich abbey of Konigsfelden, on the spot where her father had been assassinated, and retired there, to end her days in fasting and prayer. There was one voice raised to reprove her, in spite of the austerities which she practised for her soul's good. She visited the hermit Berthold d'Oftringen, who had been a soldier under her grandfather Rodolf, and tried to persuade him to go to Konigsfelden. But she urged him in vain. " Woman," he answered, " God is ill served by the shedding of innocent blood, and rejects offerings which are the fruit of rapine and violence. He loves mercy." CHAPTER VI. THE BATTLE OF MORGARTEN. BOND OF THE EIGHT CANTONS. [A. D. 1308 TO 1353. ] THE death of the emperor put no stop to the enmity between Austria and the Waldstatten, though the latter were entirely innocent of that act of violence, and had made known their detestation of it. There followed, on Albert's death, a disputed imperial election. Louis of Bavaria and Frederic of Austria, were the opposing candidates, and the Waldstatten took part against their natural enemy. This further incensed Leo- pold, Albert's son, and seven years after his father's death, he collected two armies, for the invasion of Switzerland. One force of four thou- sand, crossed the Brunig against the upper part of Unterwalden, known as Obwalden, while he him- self advanced by Morgarten with the rest of his troops. With him, marched the nobles from the 123 124 The Battle of Morgarten. neighborhood of the Aar and the Thur, his kins- men of Kyburg and Lenzburg, and a corps of Zurich burghers, with one leg blue, and the other white. The duke's preparations included a num- ber of ropes to hang the Swiss leaders, a precau- tion which proved to be quite unnecessary. To meet this array of trained soldiers, noble allies, and blue and white burghers, there assem- bled thirteen hundred men from the three cantons who stationed themselves near the hill of Morgar- ten, under the direction of old Rudolf Reding of Biberegg, their most experienced soldier. Too in- firm to take command himself, he made the plan of the battle, which was well carried out by his sons and Henry of Ospenthal. They placed their men near the small lake Aegeri, along the marshy banks of which the road of the Austrians lay. On the heights in advance were posted fifty men, who had been banished from Schwyz, and Avho begged for this opportunity of winning back their good name and their restoration to their country. Early in the morning of the 15th of November 1315, the lances of the enemy were seen advan- cing along the narrow road by the shore of the lake. The little troop of Swiss fell on their knees and prayed for deliverance. The entrance to the Austria Defeated. 125 defile where they were placed was soon crowded with a host of knights in armor, with their atten- dants pressing on behind. The fifty Schwyzers began the attack by rolling down great masses of rock upon the knights. The main body then went in with their long pikes, and broke the enemy's ranks ; they rushed on the Austrian nobles, who, crowded together, and encumbered with their heavy armor, were utterly unable to manage their horses. Disorder seized upon their ranks ; they tried to retreat slowly, but they trampled down their own infantry, who turned and fled without a blow. There was a panic, then a rout, and in less than an hour and a half the whole of Leopold's army was either killed or dispersed. The best of the Austrian nobility, the Lauffenburgs and Toggenburgs, the Habsburgs, and Bonstettens, fell that day under the blows of the victorious peasants. Two Gesslers and a Landenberg paid, with their lives, for the crimes of their relations. Leopold himself, was saved with difficulty by his attendants, and is described by a writer, who saw him the same night, as reaching Winterthur, " pale and in despair." The loss on his side is estimated at from nine to fifteen thousand. Leopold's other army, which 126 The Battle of Morgarten. was coining by the Briinig, advanced as far as Alpnach, when they saw the shepherds who had fought at Morgarten, and heard their cries of victory. They did not stop for further news, but turned and fled across the mountains towards Lucerne, which few of them reached alive. The 15th of November is still commemorated as the most glorious victory of Switzerland, and year by year the names of those who fell on that day for their fatherland are recited in the general assembly, near the fountain of Riitli. The wine-month shone in its golden prime, And the red grapes clustering hung; But a deeper sound through the Switzer's clime Than the vintage music rung, A sound through vaulted cave, A sound through echoing glen, Like the hollow swell of a rushing wave ; 'Twas the tread of steel-girt men. And a trumpet pealing wild and far, 'Midst the ancient rocks was blown, Till the Alps replied to that voice of war, With a thousand of their own. The fir-woods crashed on the mountain-side, And the Switzer's rushed from high, With a sudden charge on the flower and pride Of the Austrian chivalry. HERDSMAN'S DOGS STRUGGLING WITH A WOLF. The Three Cantons. 129 Like hunters of the deer, They stormed the narrow dell, And first in the shock with Uri's spear, Was the arm of William Tell. Oh, the sun in heaven fierce havoc viewed, When the Austrian turned to fly, And the brave in the trampling multitude Had a fearful death to die ! Aud the leader of the war, At eve unhelmed was seen, With a hurrying step on the wilds afar, And a pale and troubled mien. But the sons of the land which the freeman tills, Went back from the battle-toil To their cabin-homes, 'midst the deep green hills, All burdened with royal spoil. There were songs and festal fires On the soaring Alps that night, When children sprung to greet their sires From the wild Morgarten fight/' The challenge of Duke Leopold, in which he had expressed his intention to exterminate the con- federates, was heard of no more just then, but in place of that document there remains one which declares : " We the people of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, have bound ourselves together by a perpetual oath, and have sworn to help one another with counsel, and to sacrifice our lives and property in defending our country against all, 130 The Battle of Morgarten. whosoever they be, who shall attempt to offer violence or wrong to ourselves or to our allies." From this time the three cantons became of more importance in the eyes of the world, so that a few 3'ears later, their old bond was stretched to admit new members into their league. Lucerne was the first to propose this. Vexed and burdened by the Austrian yoke, she had long felt the evil of having to fight, against her secret inclination, on the side of the Austrian duke. The people's taxes were also increased, until they were fairly driven into a truce of twenty years with the Waldstatten. But the city was divided against itself. True to their aristocratic instincts, the nobles of Lucerne conspired to give up the city to the duke, and murder the friends of the Waldstatten in their beds. Their plans were ar- ranged in a cellar under the tailor's hall, and they were already in arms, when a little boy chanced to overhear them at their last meeting. They seized him roughly, and made him swear that he would tell no living man, after which they let him go. He kept his promise to the letter, but going into the butcher's hall, where the burghers were drinking and playing, went straight up to the stove, and related the conspiracy in all its details Berne's Struggle. 131 to that. The city was roused at once, auxiliaries from Unterwalden called in, and the principal families deprived of all share in the government, and afterwards exiled. From that time Lucerne was ruled by the commune and a council of burghers, while the duke, who had perhaps learned something by the experience of Morgarten, was brought to declare that the bond of the Four Forest Cantons was " blameless, and in no wise in- jurious to the house of Austria." Berne was next engaged in a struggle for life against the nobles and their allies. The nobles felt a keen jealousy of the thriving city, while Berne, on her part, was eager to find any pretext for rising against an oppressive rule. The citizens saw their opportunity in the excommunication of the emperor Louis, whom they at once refused to acknowledge. It was an occasion when their piety and their wishes went happily hand in hand. Joined to the city's open enemies were many secret ones, of whom Freiburg was one ; Freiburg, whom we shall see, a century later, completely un- der the influence of Berne. Berne collected her allies ; nine hundred brave men from the three old cantons, and six hundred from llasli and the Simmenthal. The small town 132 The Battle of Morgarten. of Solothurn sent eighty cuirassed horsemen, in grateful recollection of the day when, besieged by Duke Leopold, she had received from Berne sym- pathy and reinforcements. That was a day which should be remembered in Swiss history, for the magnanimity of the combatants. The Aar was flooded, and had swept away Leopold's bridge of boats, so that the river was filled with drowning men. The Solothurners forgot their just wrath ; they dropped their arms, rushed to their boats and saved as many of their enemies as they could. Leopold's heart was touched. He begged to be allowed to enter the town, gave the people a ban- quet, and made peace with them. Against this little army of Berne, appeared the united forces of the emperor, the nobles, and their allies, who besieged the little town of Laupen, belonging to Berne, whither the old avoyer, John of Bubenberg, had gone to reinforce the garrison with six hundred men. The imperial army mus- tered fifteen thousand foot and three thousand horse, and no less than twelve hundred knights, and seven hundred barons with crowned helmets. Laupen was invested, its walls battered, and large stones thrown into it by means of a catapult. But the little army that was gathered to raise the BERNE MINISTER. WITH TUB MONTMLNT OF RUDOLF VON ERLACH Rudolf von Erlach. 135 siege was not to be daunted by coroneted hel- mets, or catapults. The Swiss were commanded by a noble spirit in the person of Rudolf von Erlach. Knowing his duty to be with his coun- trymen, he had gone first to the enemy's camp, to give notice of his intention to the Count of Nidau, under whom he held an office. The count said, contemptuously, that he was welcome to go ; " one man more or less did not signify to them ; " to which Von Erlach quietly answered, " my liege, I hope I shall show myself a man." His army left Berne by moonlight, with a priest carrying the host before them, while the old men and women, unable to fight, closed the gates and went home to pray for their friends' success. Von Erlach marched directly for Laupen, and, early in the morning, took his position in sight of the ene- my. Warriors from the hostile camps advanced singly to defy and taunt each other. " You have women in disguise there ; " called out the avoyer of Freiburg. " That will be seen to-day, " an- swered Rinkenberg for the Swiss. The young count of Nidau, whose tutor Von Erlach had been, had formed some idea of the fixed purpose of the Bernese. "These burghers will soon give you 136 The Battle of Morgarten. work enough," he said to his friends. " I may lose my life here, but it shall cost them dear." The imperial cavalry first tried to turn Von Erlach's flank, and he sent the troops of the Wald- statten and Solothurn to prevent this movement. Then he cried, " Where are the lively youths, al- ways first in the dance ? Let them come forth with our banner and with me." The young men rushed from the ranks, and pressed round the ban- ner ; then came the slingers, with their volleys of stones, and broke the enemy's front. Their iron war-wagons thundered along, and made the gap larger. The commander and his main body fol- lowed quickly ; only the rear guard hesitated for a moment, and seemed about to fly. " Good," cried Erlach, " the cowards will leave us, and have no share in the victory of the brave." His words stopped the panic in the rear at once ; the cowards became heroes, and hurried on to take their part in the fight. The struggle was bloody, but it was short. The imperial troops, divided among many leaders, soon broke and ran in every direction, throwing away their arms as they went. Count Rudolf of Nidau, John of Savoy, three counts of Gruyere, with eleven others, were killed in the battle, while a thousand of their followers lay Berne s Progress. 137 dead around them. When the pursuit and slaughter were over, the whole ariny fell on their knees and gave thanks for their victory. They slept quietly on the field that night, and the next day, after burying their own dead, they went home in triumph, carrying with them twenty-seven banners, and eighty of the coroneted helmets, which had come forth so proudly to meet the despised citizens. Von Erlach received, soon after the battle, a triumph scarcely less than that of his victory, in the request made by the rela- tives of the Count of Nidau, that he should be- come guardian of the property and orphan children, of the very man who had died fighting against him. He fulfilled this and all other trusts with great honesty and good judgment, and lived to an advanced age on his own small estate, neither asking for, nor receiving, any pay for his great services to his country. The progress of the city of Berne went on without interruption for many years after, and became so noted that there was a common saying that " God had been re- ceived a burgher of Berne." In the course of fifty years after her joining the confederacy, she had become by far the most influential of the cantons, 138 Bond of the Eight Cantons. and the power she had then obtained she was quite able to maintain for centuries. Zurich, in some things the rival and superior of Berne, was now vexed with internal troubles. We have seen how the city grew in the time of the crusades, when it was adorned with a corso for knightly exercises, and had two palaces, one for the bishop and another for the emperor, while, on the right bank of the Limmat, rose towards heaven the ancient cathedral which is the glory of the Zurich of the present day. Well might the city boast of the old Latin inscription, which was once raised over her gate, "Noble Zurich, where many things are to be found in abundance." This happy town was now agitated by disputes between the people on one hand, and a few knightly families on the other, who treated the burghers with supreme contempt and refused to give any account of the city funds, which they used according to their own pleasure. Rudolf Brun, himself a knight, stirred up the people's wrath against this tyranny, and they succeeded in banishing the ruling families, and their partisans. Brun then changed the whole constitution of the city, establishing thirteen corporations of artisans, with representatives in the council, and merely Zurich. 141 accepting for himself, as a slight reward for his patriotism, the position of burgomaster, an ap- pointment for life, with absolute power. . But the burghers had not allowed for the activity of the banished lords. They plotted for the recovery of the city, and were almost successful, when they were foiled by the vigilance of the customary boy, who was on this occasion a baker's apprentice, who lay behind the stove. The alarm-bell was rung ; the burgh- ers rushed at once to arms, and bloody vengeance overtook the nobles. Many of the most dis- tinguished were beheaded, or broken on the wheel before their own doors, until, in a short time the conspiracy was trampled out, and Brun ruled more firmly than ever. The next year, 1351, Zurich applied for permission to enter the Swiss confederacy, which was granted with joy- ful haste, and she was considered the first can- ton in point of importance, receiving the title of " Vorast." Duke Albert of Austria, apparently bent upon losing his possessions, was furious at this proceed- ing, and advanced with an army towards Zurich. The citizens remained calm, and sent the duke word that they were "simple men, little versed in 142 Bond of the Eight Canton*. business, yet knew what they had sworn, and would abide by it." Albert called upon Glarus for auxiliaries, but the town had already been occupied by the Swiss, and now swore to stand by them. They sent twelve hundred men to rein- force Zurich, beat back an Austrian force, de- stroyed the castle of Nafels, and behaved with such bravery that the confederates received the little canton into their band in 1352. With their usual sense of justice, they decided that Glarus should still pay just taxes to the duke, on condi- tion that he respected her ancient rights. Zug was fated to join the league also, during the same year, in spite of her hitherto unchanged loyalty to the Habsburgs. It was with a fatal ingenuity that Albert contrived to disgust his friends as well as his enemies. The confederates were besieging Zng, which dispatched a messenger to the duke at Konigsfelden, to tell him of the danger his city was in. The duke was seriously busy, deep in conversation with his falconer, and the messenger begged, and even wept in vain. His bird was more to him than his town, and Zug, stung with his indifference, opened her gates to the confederates, and became a member of the league. The Eight Cantons. 143 What Thackeray has called the " Austrian auto- graph," was fast being erased from the land ; for in 1353, Berne was also admitted to the confeder- acy. Thus was concluded the bond of the " eight ancient places of the confederacy," a bond which allowed no new member to enter until one hun- dred and twenty-eight years later, and then only after a struggle which almost tore the country into pieces. The confederacy was now free to look after its internal affairs, which were regulated in an extremely simple way by each canton. At Zu- rich the burghers were called by the sound of a large bell, to their assemblies, held always in the open air, to deliberate on peace or war, to regulate the price of provisions, and to fix weights and measures. It is noticeable that they were obliged to assist at the election of the council three times a year, which seems to show that they had not yet fully appreciated the glorious rights of universal suffrage. Through all the confederacy, ways of living, and customs with regard to furniture and dress were strictly established for the people. In almost all the cities they were forbidden to carry arms ; in Berne no man could be in the streets without a light, after curfew. The costume of 144 Bond of the Eight Cantons. those days was simple ; for the men it was a doub- let with sleeves, worn under one without them, while their long heavy boots came almost to their knees. The women had the same garments, but the upper doublet was much longer, and was tied around the waist with a sash, while men and women alike wore cloaks. The left sleeve of the doublet was often of a different color from the rest, and was used as a party badge. Decorations were also worn on the breast, to show the party of the wearer, or in memorial of a vow, or some- times as tokens of love and friendship. The ladies exercised their taste in rather more narrow limits than at the present day ; their caps and sashes, or the fringe on their doublets, being the principal fields of display. Their shoes were very long, and turned up at the end, with a large ring stuck on the toe, a fashion which shows that the doctrine "ilfaut souffrir pour ttre belle," is of all ages and countries. The rules for social gather- ings were plainly laid down. The most fashion- able people were not allowed to ask more than twenty mothers of families to their festivities. Dancing was limited to wedding-feasts, where the musicians were not to exceed six in number, " two hautboys, two violins, and two singers." Ambas- Manners and Customs. 147 sadors were forbidden to give farewell entertain- ments, and women were especially cautioned against talking to men on their way to and from church. Such were the simple manners and habits of the fourteenth century in Switzerland. CHAPTER VII. BATTLES FOR FREEDOM. CONFEDERATE CON- QUESTS. [A. D. 1353 TO 1426.] A FEW years before the league of the eight cantons, Switzerland was attacked by an enemy more irresistible than Austria, in the shape of the plague, which had already desolated Asia, and now fell upon Europe. One-third of the Swiss people perished. The newly reclaimed lands were left uncultivated, for whole families were . swept off, leaving no kindred to claim their inher- itance. The priests were too few to bring even the last sacrements to the dying, and the burial places had no more room for the dead. Close upon this calamity there followed such earthquakes as no Swiss had ever seen before. Basel, their pros- perous neighbor, was almost entirely destroyed ; her walls and houses were completely overthrown, while fire burned under the ruins for many days. In these dark hours we find one of those occasional 148 Basel Destroyed. 149 anecdotes which go far to redeem the Habsburg family from the odium of their general dealings with their enemies. Duke Albert, who had quar- relled with Basel, was advised to seize this chance of capturing the fallen city. " God forbid," he answered " that I should smite those whom Provi- dence has spared," and he sent them four hundred workmen to help in rebuilding their city. In 1376, Basel, with its walls scarcely rebuilt, was threatened by half-disciplined companies, which had been in English pay, and at the peace between England and France, were left without employment. These companies overran Switzer- land, until the Waldstatten, roused to defend themselves, surprised and cut them off in different detachments. There is a tradition that the hillock still called " Englanderhubel " covers the bones of three thousand of these invaders, surprised and slain at Buttisholz, where, as the peasants boasted, " they had mingled blood of noble and blood of horse together." Through all the fourteenth century, through war arid peace, plague and earthquake, petty feuds and national resistance, was steadily growing the spirit and power of liberty, which, in the year 1386, once more arrayed the Swiss against the Austrians 150 Battles for Freedom. on the field of Sempach. In this new war were working the same causes which had led to the covenant of Riitli, and the battle of Morgarten ; the undying hatred of an aristocracy for the pro- gress of a free people on the one side, and on the other, the fierce determination to abide by their ancient rights. So it came to pass that the Wald- statten took the field in the early summer, and in the space of twelve days, received declarations of war from no less than one hundred and sixty-seven lords, both temporal and spiritual. It was in July, at the beginning of the harvest, that Duke Leopold appeared in Switzerland, fol- lowed by four thousand knights and barons, each with his own vassals, who formed the infantry of the army. He was on his way to attack Lucerne, when, on the morning of the 9th, he came in sight of the confederates, drawn up on the heights near Sempach. To resist the Austrian force there were but fourteen hundred Swiss, armed with the pikes their ancestors had used at Morgarten, or with short swords, and a board fastened to the left arm by way of shield. Berne's troops, with her. white banner adorned with the black bear, were not to be seen, because her truce with Leopold had not yet expired. Arnold von Wilkelried. 153 There was a short pause before the action began. The Swiss, according to their old custom, kneeled down to pray for success, while the nobles arranged their helmets, and cut off the long turned up toes of their boots, 'which hindered their walking. " There was lacing then of helmets bright, And closing ranks amain ; The peaks they hewed from their boot points Might well-nigh load a wain." The duke meanwhile was busy in creating a large number of knights whose titles generally were lost in this first day of their enjoyment. While the duke made knights, and the nobles made their toilets, one old soldier, Hans of Hasen- berg, observed the strength of the Swiss position, and advised the duke to wait for his reserve to come up ; but Leopold merely replied by a con- temptuous pun upon his name " Oh, Harecastle, thou heart of hare," and ordered the attack. The Austrians came on exultingly. In their ranks the Swiss could recognize Bailiff Gessler, whose hatred for them ran in his blood, and the most chivalrous knight of Austria, Eylaf of Ems. Leopold him* self was a conspicuous figure, in the prime of life, with a fine military bearing, and the distinguished 154 Battles for Freedom. features of his race. As the Austrians reached the foot of the hill, the duke ordered the dis- mountqd knights to charge up it ; no easy task for men in armor, unused to fight as infantry. They went up the hill, however, in such close phalanx, with their pikes bristling on every side, that the Swiss, who rushed forward to meet them, tried in vain to break their ranks. Time after time they charged down upon the advancing Austrians, only to fall on their mereiless pikes. Sixty out of their little number had died in vain, while the knights came steadily on, and the day was apparently theirs. At this moment a voice was heard from the Swiss ranks. " Take care of my wife and child," it cried ; " I will open a path for freedom." It was the voice of Arnold Struthahm of Winkelried, who rushed forward upon the Austrian lances, clasped as many of them as he could gather in his arms, and fell, pierced with many wounds. For one instant his fall made a breach, and that in- stant was enough ; his comrades pushed through the gap over his body, and fell upon the unwieldy knights, who, unable to turn quickly, fell under the Swiss swords, or were smothered in their armor. In a short quarter of an hour the defeat Battle of Sempach. 157 of the Austrians was made certain. Their great banner fell three times in dying hands, and then Leopold rushed through the crowd, caught it from the last bearer, and waved it, all stained with blood, above his head. His knights rallied around him for a moment, and then fell dead one by one. He was heard to cry, " I will die like them, and with his banner in his hand, met his death from a man of Schwyz. Some of the Swiss, who saw him fall, threw themselves on his body, to prevent its being muti- lated, and in the confusion of the moment, were killed by their own friends. The Austrians who survived, now turned to fly, but their servants had escaped on their horses, and it was impossible for them to run, in their heavy armor. Half dead with its weight, and the heat of the July sun, they were quickly cut down by the Swiss. Many noble families became extinct on this day. The bodies of Leopold and sixty of his knights were taken to Kb'nigsfelden, where their kneeling figures, carved in stone, were ranged around the Abbey walls. The confederates stayed three days upon the field, and then took their way home, carrying with them fifteen of the enemy's colors. Their leader, Gundoldmgen had also been killed, and was 158 Battles for Freedom. buried quietly at Lucerne, with two hundred of his men. Neither marble bust nor stone effigy was raised to commemorate their deeds, but a religious foundation was established, Avhere masses were long said for the souls of friends and foes, and the names of the victorious dead are written in the small chapel, near the field of Sempach, that preserves their memory. " Make way for liberty! " he cried; Made way for liberty, and died. In arms the Austrian phalanx stood, A living wall, a human wood ; A wall, where every conscious stone Seemed to its kindred thousands grown. Opposed to these a hovering band Contended for their fatherland; Few were the numbers she could boast, Yet every freeman was a host, And felt as 'twere a secret known, That one should turn the scale alone: It did depend on one indeed, Behold him, Arnold Winkelried. " Make way for liberty," he cried, Then ran with arms extended wide, As if his dearest friend to clasp ; Ten spears he swept within his grasp ; " Make way for liberty," he cried; Their keen points crossed from side to side ; Battle of Nafels. 159 He bowed amidst them like a tree And thus made way for liberty. Swift to the breach his comrades fly ; ' " Make way for liberty," they cry, And through the Austrian phalanx dart, As rushed the spears through Arnold's heart, While, instantaneous as his fall, Rout, ruin, panic seized them all ; An earthquake could not overthrow A city with a surer blow. Thus Switzerland again was free; Thiis death made way for liberty ! Two years later, another great battle, almost as fatal to the Austrian nobility was fought near Nafels in Glarus. This battle is noticeable as having been brought about by the treachery on the part of some of the Glarus people, which re- sulted in the massacre of the confederate garrison at Wesen. Six weeks later the garrison was amply avenged by the day of Nafels, in winch three thousand of their enemies perished, and only fifty-five of the Swiss. Eleven stones in the meadow of the Riiti recall, this triumphant day. To this meadow, the Swiss come once a year in solemn procession, to hear recited the names of their fifty-five heroes. Here also a deputation 160 Battles for Freedom. from Wesen, is forced to attend, and to listen to the oft-told tale of their forefather's treachery. A great dinner follows, to which they are all in- vited. The humiliation being softened by the lapse of centuries, and the dinner remaining a savory fact of to-day, the part taken by a Wesen deputy is probably less disagreeable than it seems. After the battle of Nafels, there followed a truce with Austria of seven years, which, later, was extended to twenty. The popular hatred of the country remained as great as ever. No -man dared to wear the peacock's feather, which was the badge of the Austrian dukes ; no peacock was suffered to live in Switzerland, and a man broke the glass out of which he drank, because the rays of the sun, striking on it, produced the colors of that bird. Nafels closes the list of the battles fought for the freedom of the eight cantons, battles which were so uniform in their results, that one involun- tarily reads them like fairy tales, with the happy conviction that the dwarf is sure to conquer the giant in the end. The next Leopold, son of him who fell at Sem- pach, was so impressed by this, that he gave up attempts at force, and tried the surer method of Stringent Laws. 161 sowing dissensions among the Swiss, which bore bitter fruit at a later period. During the truce with Austria, the confederates increased their franchises by ransoming themselves from their feudal lords, or by judicious purchases from their poorer neighbors. In this way, they had acquired, in a short time, no less than forty lord- ships, the people belonging to them being so anx- ious to come under the Swiss rule, that we find the people of Fentingen imploring Berne to buy their valley, and promising to help with the purchase money by the economy of " not eating veal for seven years." Great lords were very glad to be- come burghers of Lucerne, Berne, or Zurich, and to gain all the privileges of citizenship, one of which at tliis time was the hearty persecution of inno- cent Jews. Thirty-eight of these poor people were burned alive at Schaffhausen, because one of their race was suspected of having murdered a child; and the survivors were compelled to re- nounce their faith, or die also. The prisons of Zurich were crowded with them, and the Ogre's Fountain, in Berne, is named for their supposed crimes. The cities also made stringent laws for their own towns-people. Count Hans of Lavenstein, 162 Battles for Freedom. forgetting his title, stole a pair of sheets, and had one of his ears cut off, and was banished in conse- quence. Any one carrying money out of the state was condemned to lose his hands, and have his goods confiscated. A forger was broken on the wheel, and his accomplices boiled in a kettle. From these mild employments of their peaceful days, the Swiss were roused by fresh internal troubles. The canton of Zug was for some time on the point of civil war, respecting the custody of her banner and seal, but quietness was soon re- stored there by confederate intervention. There was next a dispute with the duke of Milan, when Uri and Unterwalden advanced over the St. Go- thard, and brought the Milanese very quickly to terms. This last expedition is noticeable particu- larly from the fact that it is the first time gun- powder is mentioned in the Swiss wars. In 1403 began what the old chronicler describes, with par- donable pride, as " the heroic days of the Appen- zellers." Appenzell was originally an offshoot from St. Gall, beginning with a little chapel founded by its abbot, and was now terribly oppressed by the present incumbent of St. GaH, and his bailiffs. The taxes increased until they became unbearable. The bailiffs hunted the obstinate Women's Work. 165 peasants down with large dogs, and one of them even went so far as to have a grave opened, and his " best chattel," the coat of the man who had been buried in it, taken from his body. It is a saying that " the Appenzeller may be led, but not driven," and the result of this tyranny was a general rising of the people, who attacked the castle of the bailiff, and drove away the officers. Abbot Kuno called upon his allies, the imperial cities, and Appeuzell was reinforced by Glarus and the ever-present Schwyz. A battle followed, July 17, 1405, at the foot of the Stosz, in which the peasants were completely triumphant, the day being won, by the appearance at a critical moment of the women of Appenzell, dressed in the frocks of their husbands. They were mistaken for fresh troops by the imperial army, which fled without waiting to find out their mistake. This was the beginning of a five years' war, carried on with a signal want of success on the part of the imperial- ists, until Duke Frederic of Austria, who had engaged in it with great zeal, became very weary of his undertaking, and returned to the Tyrol, cursing the war and everything connected with it. Appenzell then entered into a league with the confederates, though its admission as a new can- 166 Battles for Freedom. ton did not take place until the next century. Among the trophies of its contest, was an Austrian banner, with the inscription, " The devil take us if we do not beat these clowns." The clowns were not beaten, but the result is not chronicled. All Germany was at this time excited upon the subject of the heresy of John Huss, whose preach- ing had been the hardest blow the papacy had yet received. The council of Constance was called in the year 1412, to put an end to this schism, and also to settle the pretensions of rival popes, of whom no less than three claimed to be elected, and excommunicated each other in turn. Constance was crowded with great people and their atten- dants. The emperor came himself, with bishops and dukes, principalities and powers, and ambassa- dors from all Christian countries. During the conference, the emperor and Duke Frederic of Austria quarrelled fiercely about the rival popes, and the emperor called upon the free cities and the cantons of Switzerland to help him against the duke. The cantons hung back for a time. A truce of fifty years had lately been sworn to with Frederic, and great as the pleasure of going to war with him would have been, the Waldstatten replied that they could not break their oath, Confederate Success. 167 merely because their old enemy was unfortunate. Berne, however, took the opposite side strongly. Her conscience was under excellent discipline, and she finally brought all the confederates to join her, except Zug, which still held out stoutly. The confederates armed quickly, and marched forward to a rapid series of conquests. Berne alone took seventeen castles and walled cities, besides overrunning nearly all the district of Aargau, with the loss of only four men. The Lu- cerners spread over the country to the north and east of their canton, while the men of Zurich took possession of a large tract near their own lake, reaching as far as the river Reuss. The seven cantons together conquered almost every foot of land which had remained to Austria, in the pres- ent limits of Switzerland. This being accom- plished, there followed the work of dividing the spoils. Berne, Zurich, and Lucerne kept what they had won singly, while the common conquests were to be divided among the cantons, Berne only being left out of this division, as she was considered to have gained quite enough already. Uri alone re- fused her share. Her deputies said, " The emperor and duke are reconciled. Let us give back to the emperor what we have taken, so that he may 168 Battles for Freedom. restore it to the duke. We, O confederates ! we men of Uri, will have no share in what is not our own." This unheard of simplicity moved the other cantons to laughter. " How scrupulous and godly these men of Uri are," they exclaimed. " They must always be peculiar." So, disdaining all such peculiarity for themselves, they kept Uri's portion as a common property, to be governed alternately by bailiffs from the different cantons. The em- peror confirmed their conquests ; and for a time there was peace. CHAPTER VIII. REVOLT IN RH^ETIA WAR WITH ZURICH. [A. D. 1427-1471.] IX the early part of the fifteenth century the spirit of liberty had slowly penetrated into the mountains of upper Rhaetia, and was spread- ing over the country which is now the canton of Orisons. This part of the country had been occu- pied by the Romans, who had built a fortress in the neighborhood of Chur, of which city they were the founders. Their strategical eyes saw the advantage of having a foothold between Italy and their conquests on the Rhine, and one that should also be near the important roads over the Alps, in both directions. These passes are very numerous in the Orisons, which possessed the great roads of the Lukmanier and Via Mala, the Spliigen, Bernardino, and St. Gothard ; where from "the highest point," two ways the rivers "Leap down to different seas, and as they roll, Grow deep and still, and their majestic presence 171 172 Revolt in RTicetia. Becomes a benefaction to the towns They visit, wandering silently among them, Like patriarchs old among their shining tents, When the Roman power had fallen, and the country was occupied by Saxon and Frankish con- querors, the people gradually retreated from the dangers which beset them, to the safe heights of the Central Alps ; and the castles of the barons in the valleys below remained in the midst of a desolate country. But the peasants were not allowed to remain undisturbed. The nobles in time followed them to the mountain tops, and built new castles for themselves among the Siberian pines, whose ruins remain to this day. " Above, the frequent feudal towers, Through green leaves lift their walls of gray, And many a rock which steeply lowers And noble arch in proud decay, Look on this vale of vintage bowers." Many of these feudal towers were torn down by the furious peasants, who were driven to desperation by the tyrannies, small and great, of their masters. After enduring, for centuries, the hard rule of the bishops of Chur, and the abbots of Disentis, and of the different counts and bar- ons, they rose at last, in something the same way Chaldar is Broth. 173 as the people of the Waldstatten. Two horses of the lord of Fardiin had been turned into the young wheat of his vassal, John Chaldar. Chaldar killed them on the spot, and was immediately taken, and kept in chains, until his family obtained his freedom by payment of a large fine. On the day that he returned to his cabin, the lord of Fardiin came in while they were at dinner, and, in answer to the salutations of the family, spit con- temptuously into their broth. Chaldar's passion rose to fury. He seized the tyrant, and crying out, " Now eat of the broth thou hast seasoned," plunged his head into the dish and held it there until he was strangled. Then he rushed out, and roused the people, who were already on the brink of revolt. The castle of Fardiin first fell, that of the count Barenburg, who had forced his vassals to eat with his pigs, soon followed. The destruction of Hohen RliEetian followed. Its lord, Kuono, had so oppressed his people, that when he fell into their hands, the} r made him leap his horse over the castle walls into the Rhine. There he expiates his crimes by riding, at night, along the banks of the river, clad in black armor, on a spectral steed that scatters sparks with its hoofs as it rushes 174 Revolt in Rhcetia. along. So matters went on, until several of the best and bravest of the peasants resolved to put an end to these troubles. Following the example of their great predecessors of the Riitli, they met in a wood near the village of Trons, between Ilanz, and the abbey of Disentis. There they agreed on their course, and on the same day, dep- uties from every commune and valley appeared before their respective lords, to demand justice and security for the rights of all, with no injury to the just claims of the nobles. At this juncture there was happily found one man endowed with wisdom to come to a right deci- sion, and with candor and energy to carry it out. Peter of Pultinga, the abbot of Disentis, was the first to yield to the just claims of his people. Other lords followed his example, and rulers and people finally met together at Trons, under the shade of a spreading sycamore, near the old chapel of St. Anna. The hollow trunk of this tree still stands with only a few ragged branches, which, year by year, put forth their leaves in May, in re- membrance of the solemn assembly, while the roof of the chapel, is adorned with texts of Script- ure in Latin, " Where the Lord is, there is lib- erty." " Our fathers hoped in Thee ; they trusted THE VIA MALA. The G-ray League. 177 in Thee, and Thou didst deliver them." There, in May, 1424, abbots, barons, and counts swore by the Holy Trinity, to a perpetual covenant with the people for the maintenance of justice and safety. Thus was formed the Upper or Gray League, so called from the gray frocks worn by the deputies, which soon gave the name of Orisons to the sur- rounding country. Since 1396 another confeder- acy of four valleys had been known as the " God's House League," and in 1436 another one was formed in the mountain districts on the frontiers of Tyrol, called the " League of the Ten Juris- dictions." In 1471, these two joined that of the Grisons, or Grau biindner, and from these leagues grew up the modern canton of that name. The Ten Jurisdictions had been the property of the rich and childless count, Frederic of Toggen- burg, whose death in 1435 led to great agitation and strife, which threatened to carry at least one of the eight cantons out of the confederacy. The Toggenburg domains had at this time become im- mense. They stretched from the Lake of Zurich to the Tyrol, along the beautiful Appenzell Moun- tains, near the lofty Santis. 178 Revolt in Rhcetia. " O SUntis ! thou dost rightly -wear the crown, For seven princes stand about thy throne, And boundless is that merry realm of thine ; . E'en Tyrol flashes icy greeting back, In token of allegiance." Count Frederic had rich estates, also, lying to the north, in Thnrgau, but to all this wealth he left no direct heir. There was no lack of people who were ready to assume that character. The widow of the count advanced her claims, while some distant relatives of her husband brought for- ward theirs. Zurich and Schwyz both claimed part of the inheritance, on the ground that Count Frederic had been a co-burgher of each town. Dire confusion followed in the lands of Toggen- burg. The widow gave away, with great liber- ality what did not belong to her, trying to buy the friendship of Zurich, by bestowing on that city the town and mountains of Uznach, in St. Gall. Some of the valleys on the Lake of Wal- enstadt offered their allegiance to Schwyz, while the people of Sargans asked for Austrian protec- tion. A great diet assembled at Zurich to settle the matter, but that was impossible when the leading men of two cantons, Stussi, burgomaster of Zurich, and Reding, landamann of Schwyz, The Plague. 179 cared only for the aggrandizement of their own towns, and personally hated each other. The diet broke up, and the confederates arbitrated at Berne against Zurich, but the city refused to abide by their decision. In 1439 the other can- tons all declared war against the rebellious town. A declaration to that effect was tied to a stick, and sent by a messenger of Schwyz, who was seized by Stussi's orders, beaten with his own stick, and dispatched to his home. The hostile forces were arrayed against each other on Mount Esel, when a panic suddenly seized upon the Zurich men. They embarked upon the lake in fifty-two boats, and fled home, without striking a blow. A truce followed, during which the plague, which had desolated Europe a hundred years be- fore, broke out afresh. It attacked the city of Basel, and the church council which was sitting there, was quickly reduced to one member, all the rest having either run away, or died from the pestilence. Constance and Berne also lost hun- dreds of their inhabitants, while three thousand, one quarter of the population, perished in Zurich. Unfortunately, Stussi, and the troublesome spirits that surrounded him, survived to make new mis- 180 Revolt in Rhcetia. chief for their unhappy city. A new emperor of Germany had jnst been elected, in the person of Frederic of Austria, a grandson of the Leopold who fell at Sempach. He had declared, on ascend- ing the throne, that his first object should be to recover the domain wrested from his ancestors at Morgarten, and at Laupen ; and Zurich was not ashamed to make a treaty with him in 1442. When this was made known, the horror of Switzerland knew no bounds. Still the cantons gave Zurich one more chance, reminding her of her broken bond, and calling upon her to give up the Austrian alliance. Their magnanimity was thrown away. The men of Zurich refused to yield ; they changed the white crosses of the con- federacy for the hated red ones of Austria, and displayed in their caps the abhorred peacock's feather, and imperial eagle. Once more all the cantons declared war against the insane city. During the first year the confed- erates were entirely successful, storming the forti- fications of the allies, and destroying villages and cities everywhere. Bremgarten fell after a long defense, and Baden opened her gates to the vic- tors. They sacked the abbey of Riiti, carrying off its famous bell, and throwing about the bones THE ALTMANN. Battle at Zurich. 183 of the illustrious dead. Among them were those of old Frederic of Toggenburg, who had been dreaded in his life, and mourned after his death ; but his remains were treated with the same disre- spect as the others. At last the confederate can- tons, five thousand strong, advanced upon Zurich itself. There was a terrible battle close to the walls of the city, on the 22d of July, .1443, in which the Zurichers were completety beaten, and fled over the bridge of the Sihl. Stussi, who commanded, was a brave man, in spite of his faults, and met a brave man's fate. For one moment he stood alone on the bridge, armed with his broad battle-axe, vainly trying to stop the flight of his men. One of them turned, and cry- ing out, " By the wounds of our Redeemer this is all thy work," ran him through with his lance. A horrible scene ensued among the conquering men of Schwyz, who tore his body in pieces, and flung the mangled remains into the Sihl. The statue of the burgomaster Stussi, stands in one of the squares of Zurich, an imposing figure, clad in armor, with the broad battle-axe grasped in. its hand. The Schwyzers went on with their career of victory, but disgraced themselves by their cru- elty to the enemies they had disarmed. 184 War with Zurich. The emperor, who had another war on his hands, now called in a body of French troops for the subjugation of Switzerland. These troops were known as the Armagnacs, and were commanded by the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI. They entered Switzerland near Basel, and were joined on their way by the Austrian forces. The Swiss instantly sent sixteen hundred men to reinforce Basel, and it was this little troop that fought the bloody bat- tle of St. Jacques, a defeat that was more glorious than a victory. They swam the Birs, and ad- vanced boldly upon the enemy. But the immense numbers were too strong for them, and their small force was separated, and obliged to fight in two divisions. Five hundred fell, one by one, on the plain, and the rest near the walls of the hospital of St. Jacques. " Our souls to God," they cried, "and our bodies to the Armagnacs." Such was their fate. They fought through a long summer's day, with the courage of lions, three times they beat back the enemy, and twice attacked him them- selves ; the chapel and hospital were both burned, and 4 the wall behind which they fought, fell in ruins, but they faced their enemy until their last man had fallen. Of the sixteen hundred only ten escaped, and they were immediately proscribed A Conference. 187 throughout Switzerland for having deserted their comrades. Louis of France was satisfied with the victory that had cost him so dear, and refused to attempt anything more against such an obstinately brave people. It is possible that it was on this field that the future king learned to respect Swiss courage, and the idea of making Swiss soldiers the tools of his self-aggrandizement may even then have oc- curred to his far-reaching brain. In the same year, 1444, he concluded a peace with them at Ennis- heim, and returned home. The war went on with constant success for the confederates, until the emperor wearied of a con- flict, in which he gained neither credit nor advan- tage. Stussi and Reding now being both dead, Zurich and the other confederates found it easy to reconcile their differences, and arranged a confer- ence for that purpose. Their mutual distrust was so great that the two parties met on Lake Zurich in two boats, while Hugh de Montfort, commander of the order of St. John, attended in a third, ex- horting the combatants to peace. The avoyer Heinrich of Bubenberg, at last pronounced his sentence as arbitrator, which was, that Zurich should give up her alliance with Austria, as con- 188 War with Zurich. trary to the principles of the confederation. All the territory that she had lost during the war should be restored to her, except a small strip on the upper lake, which was to go to Schwyz. The original bone of contention, the Toggenburg in- heritance, was flung to a distant relation of the late countj who shortly afterwards, in 1469, sold it to the abbot of St. Gall. This foolish war had cost Zurich an immense sum of money, and the lives of some of her best citizens. It had also created a strong dislike be- tween Berne and Freiburg, because the latter city had taken the side of Austria. Austria repaid its devotion in the usual coin of that ducal house, oppression, taxation, and harsh treatment of all kinds. Finally, under the pressure of a debt which Freiburg owed to Savoy, and which neither Frei- burg nor Austria was able to pay, Austria negoti- ated privately for the cession of the city to Savoy. The Austrian marshal, Thuring, of Hallwyl, was ordered to leave the city, and arranged his de- parture in this way. He told the council that Duke Albert was coming to visit the city, and borrowed all the silver plate he could collect in order to welcome his liege lord with a great ban- quet. Having had it packed up, and sent off Nominal Peace. 189 secretly, he rode out of the gate, attended by some of the principal citizens. A short distance from the city he stopped, handed the astonished avoyer the document by which Duke Albert resigned all rights over the city, and remarking, " Your silver is the price of your liberty, fare you well," put spurs to his horse, and left the burghers standing dumb with amazement. The country was now nominally at peace, but there was constant uneasiness and strife between the cities. Constance quarrelled with all the cantons in 1458 and was on the point of being destroyed, from a dispute about a bad piece of copper coin, called a plappart. Berne was vexed by a plebeian avoyer, Peter Kistler by name, who enforced strict sumptuary laws. He especially attacked the long trains of the ladies, and their rebellion against this act of oppression, nearly in- volved their husbands and brothers in a civil war. Excited by the pope against Sigismund of Austria, the confederates invaded Thurgau, and made it a Swiss domain in 1468, the city of Winterthur becoming subject to Zurich. In all these disturbances the Grisons alone took no part. They were still tasting the first fruits of their liberty, and asked for nothing better. Indeed, 190 War with Zurich. their liberty was still a young plant that demanded constant care, and for many years after the meeting at Trons they were engaged in struggles with the different nobles, who found it impossible to resign themselves to the new order of things. At the time when the three leagues united in 1471, they agreed to discuss their affairs every year at a gen- eral diet, to be held alternately at Chur, at Ilanz, and at Davos. The laws which were enacted there, were always to be submitted to the separate com- munes, who chose their own magistrates among their best and most honest men. So the peasants prospered, in the high mountains which look down upon the Italian plains. " The stranger, wandering in the Switzer's land, Before its awful mountain-tops afraid, Who yet, with patient toil, hath gained his stand, On the bare summit where all life is stayed, Sees far, far down, beneath his blood-dimmed eyes, Another country golden to the shore, Where a new passion and new hopes arise, Where Southern blooms unfold forevermore." CHAPTER IX. WAR WITH BURGUNDY. [A. D. 1474 TO 1477.] THE next event in the national history of the Swiss, was the war which they successfully carried on against the acknowledged military leader of Europe at the time, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Into this war the Swiss were drawn by the crafty hand of their late enemy, now Louis XI. of France. Louis' life-long rivalry with Charles is familiar to every school-boy and girl, who, looking upon history as their natural enemy, find a resistless charm in the pages of Quentin Durward. With the quick glance of a skilful physician, the French king recognized at once "the two mental maladies of the Swiss, the love of war, and the love of money," and understood how to avail himself of them. He had flatteries, presents, and gold chains always ready for the'lords of the coun- cil in the different cities, and succeeded with most of tlium, but particularly with Berne. By the in- 193 194 War with Burgundy. fluence of that city, joined to that of Zurich and Lucerne, a compact was made in 1474 between Louis and the cantons, Unterwalden alone refus- ing to take part in a war, in which she thought neither the honor nor advancement of Switzerland was at r.ll concerned. Upon this agreement being made, Louis dispatched a present of twenty thou- sand francs to the confederates, to be divided according to the discretion of Diesbach, the avoyer of Berne, and his colleagues. Of this sum, equal to about seventy-five times its value at the present day, the three cities divided about .one half among themselves ; Berne, before taking her share, virtuously repealing her statute against taking a bribe. The rest of the money went to private citizens, Diesbach and others, who were known to be devoted to France. When these preliminary arrangements had been made, the cantons looked about for a reasonable pretext for war against Charles, and were so fortunate as to find no less than three. " Peter von Hagenbach, Charles' bailiff, had failed to protect the Swiss merchants, travelling through Burgundy, from ill- treatment by his people. Re'ne', duke of Lorraine, who had been driven from his dominions by Charles, had called upon them for help, and, Grandson and Orbe. 195 finally, the emperor of Germany asked their assist- ance, on the plea that they were still members of the empire. He sent his summons, but probably no one was so surprised as he at the prompt obe- dience which it received. The cantons all took the field, even Unter- \valden having yielded to the feeling that it would be dishonorable to desert her allies. In October they defeated the Burgundians in their first bat- tle, in which the Swiss marched for the first time with Austrian troops. Early in the next spring, they crossed the Jura mountains, and took a great many castles, the most notable of which were Orbe, and Grandson. Grandson, a square battle- mented structure, built in the eleventh century, was the chief stronghold of a long line of warlike barons, who had made their motto, "Petite cloche a Grand son," famous in their own part of the country. The last of the race Otho de Grandson had fallen in a judicial combat seventy years be- fore, and his statue is preserved in the minster of Lausanne. When the Swiss attacked Grandson, the commander, De Joigne, had only a small garri- son, and had called in the neighboring peasantry to help in the defence of the castle. The Swiss assaulted the town behind the castle, and forced 196 War with Burgundy. one of its gates. As soon as this was accom- plished, the garrison surrendered on condition of leaving the castle with all their valuables, but the Swiss broke their word, and seized everything that they thought worth having. The fate of Orbe was worse. It was garrisoned by a picked body of knights and men-at-arms, who scorned to surrender " like the cowards of Grand- son," and died one by one, by the pikes of the Swiss. Their bodies lay strewn in the passages and chambers of the castle, or were heaped in the court-yard, or on the jagged rocks below, where the infuriated Swiss had made them leap from the battlements. One example like this answers for all. The Swiss were almost everywhere triumph- ant, and every victory they gained was followed by excesses in cruelty and pillage which made this unworthy war still darker. Castles were burned as far as Savoy, and the confederates' banners floated along Lake Leman. The year 1476 opened differently. Louis, hav- ing well embarked the Swiss in this quarrel, now deserted them, and signed a truce of several years with Charles, with whom the emperor also had made peace a short time before. Charles was now free to turn his whole attention to the Swiss, who CHURCH OF ST. FKANCOIS, LAUSANNE. Grandson Lost. 199 may well have trembled at the thought of the day of retribution which now seemed so unpleasantly near. They sent ambassadors to the duke, with the hope of obtaining peace, describing the pov- erty of their country, where he would not find the value of his knights' gilt spurs. Their prayer was in vain, for they had raised a spirit which they had no charm to lay again. Charles advanced upon them with an army of sixty thousand men, and with a camp that re- sembled a rich Burgundian town. He began operations by laying siege to his lost castle of Grandson. It was surrounded for six weeks, and, after two attempts on the part of the confederates to relieve it, surrendered on the 29th of March. The garrison of four hundred and twelve men, was marched up to a hill behind the town where the duke sat in front of his pavilion. There, near a broad rock which still bears the name of " the stone of mauconseil," Charles gave the order that every one of the garrison should be hung to the trees scattered through the camp. The confederates, hearing that the castle had surrendered, hurried towards Grandson as fast as they could march. In the early morning of the 3d of April, their vanguard, composed of sol- 200 War with Burgundy. diers from Lucerne, Schwyz, and the Bernese Ober- land, appeared in the vineyards between the Lake of Neuchatel and the Jura mountains. They formed in a hollow square, and fell on their knees to pray, as the Burgundian army advanced. Charles thought that they knelt to beg for their lives, and cried out, " Par St. George, ces canailles orient merei! G-ens des canons, feu sur ces vi- lains!" His mistake was soon apparent. The praying army arose, and with Freiburg and Berne, who had come up meantime, advanced upon the Burgundians, " falling like hail upon the gay gal- lants." They alone beat off the duke's army, for a whole hour, at the end of which the main body of the Swiss came up. The sun shone on their ban- ners and polished lance-heads, while the horns of the forest cantons " the steer of Uri," and " the cow of Unterwalden " kept up a harsh bellow- ing that was music to the ears of the hard-pressed Swiss. Just then Charles had ordered his main body to retreat a little way on the plain, in order to draw the Swiss into a place where he might sur- round them. His reserves, seeing this movement, and the arrival of the fresh confederate troops at the same instant, thought their own army beaten. They raised the cry of "Sauve qui peut ! " and fled, Rich Spoil. 201 to the horror of the duke, who strove in vain to stop the panic. Time after time he rallied a small force, but it was never enough to withstand the rush of the Swiss. His officers at length forced him away. The flight of his army had been so sudden and so rapid that only one thou- sand men were killed in the retreat. Two things now engaged the attention of the victors. The first was the dreadful sight of their countrymen, whose bodies, still hanging on the trees near Grandson, were easily recognized by their kinsmen and friends. While some of their old companions cut them down for burial, others, wild with grief and rage, dragged the Burguridians, alive or dead, to hang in their places. On reach- ing Charles' camp, the Swiss were surprised at the sight of such spoil as their ignorant eyes had never beheld before. Charles had intended to hold his court the next winter in Savoy, and had brought with him crown jewels of immense value. Among them were the sword of state, and a cap, in front of which sparkled the largest diamond in Christendom, the famous Savoy stone, which, after various journeys, and after returning at one time to its native India, was bought by Prince Demi- doff, in 1835, for half a million francs. Another, 202 War with Burgundy. only a little smaller, which now adorns the pope's tiara, was picked up on the road by a Swiss, who sold it to a priest for three francs. The eyes of curious strangers are still attracted by suits of armor, rich tapestries, and banners, which are hung in the churches and arsenals of Switzerland as memorials of the victory of Grandson. Charles never entirely recovered from this terri- ble blow, though he had energy for another and still another struggle. While his allies deserted him, and his enemies rejoiced at his misfortune, he was busy in collecting another army from every part of his dominions. The church bells were cast into new cannon, money was raised by per- suasion or force, and in the beginning of June, he appeared before Morat or Murten, at the other end of the Lake of Neuchatel, and called upon the town to surrender. It held out, however, un- til the confederates, warned by the fate of Grand- son, assembled near Morat. There, on the 22d of June, the anniversary of the battle of Laupen, the Swiss won another great battle, the descrip- tion of which is best given in the homely verse of Veit Weber, who took part in it, and who seems to have been a gentleman of varied accomplish- ments. The Battle of Murten. 203 " The tidings flew from land to land, At Murten lies Burgund; And all make haste for fatherland, To battle with Burgund. The leaders held but short debate Too long it still appeared ; " Ah, God ! when ends the long debate ? Are they perchance afeared ? Not idle stands in heaven high The sun, in his tent of blue ; We laggards let the' hours go by, When shall we hack and hew ?" " Short time the foemen bore the fray, Soldier and champion fled, And the broad field of battle lay. Knee-deep with spears o'erspread. Some in the forest, some the brake, To ui.le from the sunlight sought; Many sprang headlong into the lake, Although they thirsted not. Up to the chin they waded in; Like ducks swam here and there; As they a flock of ducks had been, We shot them in the mere. After them on the lake we sail, With oars we smote them dead, And piteously we heard them wail, The green lake turned to red. 204 War with Burgundy. Up on the trees clomb many high, We shot them there like crows ; Their feathers help them not to fly, No wind to waft them blows." " A camp like any market-place Fell to the Switzers' hand ; Carl made the beggars rich apace In needy Switzerland." " Veit Weber had his hand on sword, Who did this rhyme indite ; Till evening mowed he with the sword, He sang the staves at night. He swung the bow, he swung the sword, Fiddler and fighter too, Champion of lady and of lord, Dancer and prelate too." From this second defeat Charles escaped to the Lake of Geneva, with only a small body guard of about thirty knights. From fifteen to twenty thousand of his army had perished on that fatal day. Nine years later their bones were collected in an ossuary built on the shore of the lake, near the village of Meyringen, with a triumphant inscrip- tion, " to show foreigners how formidable are the confederates when united." These relics have not rested undisturbed. Towards the close of the Another Victory. 207 last century, when Switzerland was occupied by French troops, a Burgundian regiment tore it down, by way of effacing the insult to their fore- fathers. The bones were covered with a mound of earth, on which, after the most approved French method, was planted a tree of liberty. But the earth which covered them was soon washed away, and they were left bleaching on the shore until 1822, when they were covered with the simple obelisk of marble, which commemorates the victory of Murten. Charles' mind nearly gave way after his defeat, and flight. He changed from days of the deepest depression to fits of gayety, in which he saw him- self the conqueror of Switzerland. Again he raised men and money in Burgundy ; again cannon were cast, and lances forged. He took the field in the early autumn, and' laid siege to Nancy, which had been retaken by Rend of Lorraine. The Swiss advanced as the auxiliaries of Rend, and it was only half a league from Nancy that they gained their third and last victory over Charles. His army was from the first discouraged, and all his best generals had besought him not to risk another defeat that year. Their advice was all in vain, Charles would not hear for an instant of the possi- 208 War ivith Burgundy. bility of failure, and appeared driven forward to his ruin. On the other hand, the Swiss advanced with all the prestige of success. Their general Herter planned the attack, and his plan was well carried out. Charles' artillery was turned by a force which had secretly gained the hill above, and descended at a quick pace upon the astonished gunners. In a few minutes . the duke saw his army attacked on both flanks, and at this juncture, the Italian Count Campobasso, who commanded his vanguard, treacherously went over to Re'ne'. The only choice that remained to Charles was flight or death. Without a moment's hesitation, he prepared to lead a charge upon the enemy. As he fastened his helmet, its golden lion fell to the ground. " It is a sign from God " he said, as he put himself at the head of a small troop, arid plunged amidst his foes. He was seen to charge again and again, each time with fewer followers, with his face streaming with blood. Then his page, a Colonna of Italy, saw him surrounded ; saw his horse slip and fall upon the frozen ground. There he was found the next day, pierced by wounds from Swiss halberds. His cousin Re'ne', restored to his own dominion by Charles' death, came to look at the War Ended. 209 body. He took the hand of the man, who, with all his faults, " had the genius to be loved," and burst into tears. " Fair cousin," he exclaimed, " thou broughtest many evils on us. May God assoU thee." The battle of Nancy was fought on the 5th of January, 1477, and Charles' death ended the war with Burgundy. Splendid as the courage and discipline of the confederates had been, it is a chapter of their history which any true lover of Switzerland would rather leave unread. It raised her indeed to the first military rank in Europe, and gave her infantry that great reputation which it preserved for more than three centuries. But the Swiss grew restless and corrupt from the mo- ment when they sold their independence of con- duct, and embarked in an unjust war for the sake of French gold. All their best patriots have joined in condemning this course. " It is just one hundred years," wrote Bullinger of Zurich, in 1574, " since the formation of that alliance, which as is now clear to all, was our undoing." " The art of corrupting the greed} r Swiss," says an author of the eighteenth century, " has been closely imitated by the successors of Louis XI. No spot has remained uninfected." 210 War with Burgundy. The natural consequences followed swiftly and surely. From that time thousands of young men went to perish in wars which did not concern them, while their own soil remained uncultivated, and art and science utterly languished. The great evil of this is shown by the progress made in all peaceful arts by Zurich and Berne during the 16th century, when for a time they renounced the French alliance. The true motive of the war with Burgundy is on record, in the appeal for reward and favor, addressed to Louis by the Swiss repre- sentatives, six months after Charles' death. In this appeal they beseech him "to remember our faithful service to the king in running down and killing the Duke of Burgundy, who had never harmed us, neither he nor his forefathers. Gladly would he have continued our neighbor and friend. Yet we declared him our enemy, and hmited him down." CHAPTER X. FREIBUKG AND SOLOTHURN JOIN THE LEAGUE. WAR WITH AUSTRIA. ADMISSION OF BASEL, SCHAFFHAUSEN, AND APPENZELL. [A. D. 1477 TO 1513.] THE Burgundian spoil and French pensions having been divided among the Swiss, their credit as a respectable nation was so much in- creased that Freiburg and Solothurn, who had been valuable allies during the war, applied for permission to join the confederacy. It was in 1481, when the confederates were assembled in diet at Stanz, and deputies from the friendly states of Appenzell and St. Gall were also there, that those from the two cities asked for admittance. Stanz is the capital of Nidwalden, as is Sarnen of Oben- wald, the two divisions into which the canton of Unterwalden was separated in 1150, the great forest of the Kernwald being the natural boundary between them. 213 214 Freiburg and Solothurnjoin the League. The petition of the cities immediately raised the most terrible storm in the diet. The cities unani- mously favored their admission. The three old cantons, however, conservative then as always, opposed it with might and main. The peasants were already jealous of the cities, and felt that the addition of any new towns, would reduce them to entire insignificance. Neither party would 3'ield, and civil war was on the point of breaking out. At this point Heinrich Imgrund, the pastor of Stanz, bethought himself of a last resort. He seized his walking-staff, and hurried up the moun- tains to a spot near Saxeln, in the Obenwald. There, on a solitary rock, lived a hermit, who was looked upon as a saint throughout the whole country, and from the rock on which he lived, took the title of " Nicholas von der Flue," or " brother Glaus," as lie is called in every peasant's hut in Unterwalden. Many miracles were attributed to this homely saint. Some declared that he lived on roots and water alone, while others stoutly affirmed that he had not tasted earthly food for years, but" was supernaturally nourished for nine- teen years by the holy sacrament while he prayed and fasted ; his wife and children lived near him, MOUNTAIN' STAG. Brother Claus. 217 on the farm which he had formerly cultivated, after spending his youth as a soldier. The old song describes his appearance : " Look well at the figure of brother Claus, For handsome and tall of stature he was, Though his powerful frame was wasted so thin, The bones you could see quite plain through the skin. His complexion was brown, his hair raven-black, But now 'twas besprinkled with gray, alack! His beard was evenly parted in two, And neither wide nor long it grew ; While in his fine dark eyes and face There shone a light of celestial grace Which thrilled the beholder through and through, So noble he looked, yet terrible too! " Brother Claus listened to the pastor's story, and prepared to return at once with ' him to Stanz. They lost no time, and entered the council-hall, where the quarrel was still raging. At the sight of the old hermit, every man in the assembly rose to receive him. He spoke with the authority of one who believes himself a divine messenger, which in truth he was, for his words were all those of peace and good-will, and he appealed to the men in the name of God, who had given to them and to their forefathers victory over their enemies. " You have become strong," he cried, " by the power of 218 Freiburg and Solothurn join the League. your united arms ; will you now separate ? Cities ! insist not on burgher-rights which wound the old confederates. Cantons ! remember how Freiburg and Solothurn have fought by your side. Receive them into your bond. But beware of foreign quarrels. Far from every one be the thought of accepting gold as the price of his fatherland." The simple words of the old man had won the day. The cantons yielded, and on that very day the two towns were received into the confederacy. In the covenant of Stanz all the old compacts were rati- fied, including an edict of a hundred years before, which restrained the power of the priests. This edict, called the "Pfaffenbrief," was one of the first forerunners of the great religious struggle which took place in Switzerland in the sixteenth century. His work over, Brother Claus returned at once to his cell, where he died peacefully six years later, having lived to see the happy effects of his in terference. Throughout Unterwalden, his effigy is seen at every turn, on churches, houses, and wayside inns. In Saxeln itself, in the beautiful church, which is adorned with pillars of black marble, his bones are kept sacredly in a glass case before the high altar, to which the devout peasant Peace and Joy. 219 turns with a reverent affection for the patriot and saint. Peace was now restored, and from the Alps to the Jura the church bells pealed out the universal joy. But the restored peace could not bring back to the Swiss the old simplicity, which had de- parted forever. Honest toil had fallen into disre- pute ; men wanted to make their fortune as soldiers, and, failing that, became robbers and murderers. Crime had become so common that in 1480, fifteen hundred executions took place in Switzerland, and, at the diet of Baden, it was de- creed that robbers should be hung for even such a small offence as the theft of a bit of rope. Mean- while hundreds, and even thousands of young men marched over the mountains, with colors flying, and horns blowing, to seek their fortune in foreign armies, or in the petty wars nearer home. In the last years of the century, trouble arose in- the different parts of Switzerland. In Zurich the burgomaster Waldmann, who had raised himself to this post by the way in which he had led the troops of the city at Murten and at Nancy, came into conflict, first with the nobles and priests, and afterwards witli the overtaxed peasants, whose 220 Freiburg and Solothurn join the League. claims he treated with the arrogance of a born aristocrat. The conflict ended at last in the execution of Waldmann, and in a convention, which secured to the common people certain rights. Among these were the right of cultivating the vine and manag- ing their lands as they thought best ; of settling where they pleased ; and, above all, of exercising what handicrafts they pleased in their own villa- ges. The modern idea of the right of idleness seems not to have reached their primitive minds. This convention was signed and sealed by the other cantons, on. the 9th of May, 1489. The St. Gall people had also been enraged by the attempt of their abbot, to build a new abbey on his estate of Rorschach. They called upon their neighbors of Appenzell for help, and the Appenzellers, delighted at the chance oi thwarting the abbot, responded promptly. They set fire to the half-built monastery, passed the night in sing- ing, and drinking the wine which they found there, and returned very happy to their homes. The pleasure of their frolic was short-lived. The abbot appealed to the cantons, and St. Gall was obliged to pay a large sum of money, while Appenzell THE LAKE Oi 1 LUCKK^'K Foreign War. 223 was forced to give up the Rheinthall, and part of the lordship of Sax. Internal discords were soon united by a foreign war, which put the Swiss once more in the field against Austria. Maximilian I., who had married the greatest heiress of Europe, Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, was at the head of the Suabian league, which he wished the Swiss to join. They refused promptly, as they had already refused his first invitation to be made a German imperial circle. Very much irritated at this, Max- imilian lost his temper in talking to the Swiss deputies at Innspruch, and threatened that " some day he would pay them a visit, sword in hand." The deputies replied that they humbly begged his Majesty to dispense with such a visit ; " for our Swiss are rude men, who do not even respect crowns." To the archbishop of Mayence, who said angrily that he could put them under the ban of the empire with a stroke of his pen, they answered : " What your grace threatens, others have actually tried with halberds, which are harder than goose quills, yet they could not." War followed quickly upon these threatening words, and the confederates welcomed two new allies, in the shape of the God's House and Gray 224 War with Austria. Leagues. The Appenzellers also joined them, and Valais, Basel, and Schaffhausen came to swell their numbers. The imperial army entered the Grisons in February 1499, and gained some trifling suc- cesses at first. But the tide soon turned, and the Swiss carried everything before them, winning eight battles in less than eight months. Near the city of Constance ; at St. Johns near Bregenz ; at the Malserhaide in Tyrol : they were every- where victorious. Every man fought as if the victory depended upon him alone, and many were the duels of individual valor, men fighting when mortally wounded, like Fonta.na of Grisons, who cried out, " Do not stop for my fall ! It is but one man the less ; " or like John Wala of Gla- rus, who met, alone, thirty horsemen. The emperor Maximilian was disturbed in his Netherland war by the news of these successive defeats, and sent out an appeal to all the princes of the empire. He asked "for auxiliaries against these rude peasants, in whom there is neither virtue, noble blood, nor magnanimity, but who are full of coarseness, pride, perfidy, and hatred of the German nation." The German princes de- clined sending help to the empire. Possibly they disliked the idea of bringing their noble blood Rejoicings. 225 and magnanimity into contact with the coarseness of the Swiss. While they made excuses, still worse accounts assailed their polished ears. The German army which had been sent over the mountains of the Engadine to put down the Orisons league, had been destroyed, partly by the rocks which the leaguers hurled on them from all the heights, partly by avalanches and by famine. A little later, six thousand confederates gained a battle near Dornach, over fifteen thousand Austri- ans, of whom they killed one fifth, including their noble general. The emperor wisely concluded to end a war, in which many hundred villages, cities, and castles had been destroyed, and in which he and his allies had lost more than twenty thousand men. The peace which he made at Basel, in September, 1499, ended the last attempt of Germany to overthrow the confederation. Soon afterwards, in gratitude for the help of Basel and Schaffhausen, these two towns were received as members of the perpetual Swiss bond. This was in the summer of 1501, and great were the rejoicings on the occasion. At Basel, the Swiss deputies, with the mayor and council of the town, went publicly to the cathedral to hear mass, after which they repaired 226 Admission of Basel. to the market-place, where the mutual oath was taken. All the bells of the city rang out the gen- eral joy ; the guards were removed and replaced by an old woman, who sat spinning in the open gate, to show the safety that Basel had gained by her entrance into the confederacy. Nor were the claims of Appenzell forgotten. She had long been united with almost all the can- tons by perpetual treaty, and in 1513 she was re- ceived into the bond, and acknowledged as equal with all the confederates. In this way the repub- lic of the thirteen cantons was completed, which remained without the addition of any new mem- bers for nearly three hundred years. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the emigration of the Swiss, to take service in foreign armies, was at its height, but was then placed on a very different footing. The young men had hith- erto enlisted just as they pleased, either singly, or in small bands. The magistrates now arranged to raise Swiss regiments, to be commanded by their own officers, and subject to their own discipline, and to be paid regularly by the foreign power for whom they were fighting. Kings and emperors were very quick at making the most of this. They bribed the council lords to get them the first $WL ' ^ V3X~ Silver vs. Words. 229 and best supply of troops, and even the manner of doing this would have been offensive to their pride and patriotism, if these qualities had not already become blunted. The French ambassador called the magistrates together by the sound of the trumpet to receive their pensions ; and at Freiburg he poured out silver crowns upon the ground, ask- ing contemptuously, " if the silver did not jingle better than the emperor's empty words " ? The cantons were no longer Swiss. One was for Milan, one for France, and another for Spain. Then the Holy Father himself, entered the list of bargainers, and in 1503, Pope Julius III. en- gaged the first of those Swiss life-guards, whose name became famous in Europe. Everywhere abroad the Swiss preserved their character for courage and discipline. With their help, Louis XII. of France con- quered all Lombardy in twenty days, and was obliged to grant them three Italian districts, in- cluding Bellinzona and the important pass of St. Gothard, as a reward for their services. Next, Cardinal Schinner, the former bishop of Sion in Valais, brought them to change sides, and to go into the pope's army. Louis had paid them badly, but the pope made them great promises. He sent 230 Admission of Basel. them also a gold sword, two banners with St. Peter's keys above the arms of the cantons, not to speak of a brief, in which they were styled the defenders of the church. It does not appear that the pope paid them any better than the king, but, by taking Italian towns, and extorting a ransom for them, the defenders of the church managed to pay their own wages. In June 1513, the Swiss won the great battle of Novara for the duke of Milan, against the French, but with a loss of two thousand of their best troops. In September, 1513, fighting on the same side, they lost the battle of Marignano ; a terrible conflict of two days, which a French marshal called " tfie battle of the giants." They lost the ground indeed, but retreated in good order, carry- ing off on their backs their own field-pieces, and some which they had captured, and bearing their wounded in the centre of their reduced ranks. At Marignano two companies, surrounded in a burning village, chose to die rather than surren- der. Louis XII. 's son, Francis I., succeeded in re- gaining the Swiss as allies, in 1521. For several years they fought hard for him in Italy, and he re- warded them by asking the confederancy to be- come the sponsor of his infant son. The burden A Change Coming. 231 of this honor involved the sending a deputy of each canton to the fete at Paris, with a christening present of fifty ducats a piece. Four years later, they lost seven thousand men in killed and prison- ers at the battle of Pavia, where the French king himself was taken prisoner, and whence he sent the celebrated message to -his mother, " All is lost save honor." By these reverses, the evil of foreign service began at last to cure itself. When thousands and tens of thousands had left Switzerland to return no more, the people became enraged against the magistrates who received pensions from king and pope, and sent their fellow-townsmen to their death. Zurich, Lucerne, and Berne rose against " these eaters of men," and succeeded in fining or banishing them. At the same time they made many improvements in their city governments, and thus paved the way for the " great reform." CHAPTER XL THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND [A. D. 1513 TO 1536.] THE great day of the reformation had dawned in Germany, and the sun of religious enfran- chisement risen in Switzerland at almost the same moment. The coriupt state of the church there, in the early part of the sixteenth century, had gradually disgusted all thoughtful men. Many of the clergy were both immoral and lazy, and pur- posely kept the people in ignorance, for fear that education might transform them into critics of their spiritual fathers. Inheritors of the name, but not of the character, of the founders of the Swiss church, the pious Meinrad and the zeal- ous Gall, they set their flocks an evil example that went far to shake faith in holy things. In addition to this feeling, which had been slowly growing for years, the indignation of the civil authorities, and of all patriots of varying shades 232 Zwingli. 233 of opinion, was aroused at the appearance of the Franciscan friars, who came, selling indulgences everywhere, in return for the money which was to aid in the building of St. Peter's at Rome. In 1518, a monk by the name of Samson, who had come into the canton of Schwyz for this purpose, was publicly denounced by Zwingli, who was then established at a Einsiedeln, as preacher in the church of the Virgin of the Hermitage. Zwingli was the man whose name is always asso- ciated with the rise of Protestantism in Switzer- land, as that of Calvin is with its triumphant pro- gress. He was born in 1484 at Wildhaus, a little town high up in the mountains of St. Gall, and was therefore just a year younger than Martin Luther. He was brought up in the simplest way, as one of the eight sons of the principal magistrate of the place. In his quiet home, how- ever, his imagination was fired by stories of the late war with Burgundy, and of the achieve- ments of his fellow-townsmen, stories which may have laid the foundation of that love of country, which, with a 'deep love of truth, was always his most striking characteristic. He was sent to school, first in Basel, and later in Berne, where he enjoyed the study of the music 234 The Reformation. and books which he loved, and was happy with the friends, who were quickly won by his genial manner. When the time came for him to go to the university, he was placed at Vienna, but later returned to his own Basel, where, among his com- panions, were Capito and Leo Juda, who were to be in after years his helpers in the work of reform. Upon becoming a curate, he was sent to a little parish in Glarus, where he studied very hard, not only the Latin and Greek authors, but especially the Bible, which was a rather unusual thing for a priest of his time. As he grew older, he lamented more and more the low state of morals among the clergy, and was also deeply convinced of the evil effects of French influence upon his people. Ser- vice for the pope he did not look upon in the same way, for he went as chaplain of a regiment, at the call of the holy father, and was present at the bat- tle of Merignano. In Einsiedeln, whither he was transferred, in 1516, he preached to the hosts of pilgrims, who flocked annually to St. Meinrad's cell, in a way in which they had certainly never been preached to before. He told them of the doctrine of salvation by Christ alone, and re- ferred every duty to the Bible as the highest au- thority. In 1518 he raised his voice against the BASEL MIMSTKB. Zurich Protestant. 237 peddlers of indulgences, until they were obliged to decamp in great haste. He had by this time at- tracted so much attention that he was sent, the next year, to preach in the cathedral at Zurich, then a thriving town of seven thousand people. He announced at once his purpose of explaining the Bible to his hearers, and of basing all his teaching on the truth which he found there. It is almost impossible to realize, at this day, with our familiar surface acquaintance with the Bible, the immense effect of its novel truth upon the people of Zurich. Zwingli soon obtained such an influence there, that when Samson appeared with his indulgences, he was not suffered even to enter the city. The bishop of Constance supported Zwingli, and the magistrates were so much in ac- cord with him, that in 1520 they commanded that the word of God should be taught, throughout their jurisdiction, " without human additions." Two years later the reformation was an accom- plished fact in Zurich, the city throwing off the authority of the bishop of Constance, and making the magistrates the head of the church. The papacy and the mass, the invocation of saints, jus- tification by works, monastic orders, celibacy of the clergy, confession, fasts and festivals, pilgrim- 238 The Reformation. ages, and indulgences, were all rejected by Zwingli But in these changes, radical as they were, and extending even to such details as the disuse of musical instruments, he proceeded with a temper- ance and moderation worthy of his great cause. In most points he held the usual Protestant doc- trines, but was remarkable for two deviations, which show the kindly toleration of his nature. He considered original sin as a disorder, rather than as a state involving guilt, and he refused to share the general belief in the universal condem- nation of the heathen. His ideal church was the beautiful one of the apostles ; the whole body of the communion of all faithful people. From Zurich the reformation spread quickly to several of the large cities of Switzerland. It was soon established in Basel, and also in Berne in 1528, after a great public disputation at which Zwingli was present. The same change followed in St. Gall and Schaffhausen ; while the new doc- trines penetrated even into the mountains of the Grisous, and Farel, a Frenchman of good family, preached them with zealous haste on the Lakes of Geneva and Neuchatel. Amidst the excitement of these changes, the four Waldstatten held by their ancient' Catholic The New Faith Opposed. 239 faith, firmly as they hold it to the present day, and Zug, with the loyal conservatism that she had shown in the early days of the republic, followed their example. In Glarus and Appenzell the two religions kept up an unceasing struggle for suprem- acy, which ended at last in the division of Appen- zell into two parts. In Solothurn and Freiburg the city governments postponed the breaking out of strife, by forbidding any innovation what- ever. But trouble soon arose with regard to the government of the districts conquered by the con- federates a hundred years before, and since held as common property. The small Catholic cantons could not support the idea of the new faith spreading into this neutral territory, as it was cer- tain to do, if it were not repressed. They also felt a natural horror of sects like the anabaptists, which had followed quickly in the train of the new ideas, and run into excesses which Protestant- ism would have been very sorry to share. They insisted upon a community of goods and wives, and announced the advent of the Messiah, and the abolition of all spiritual and temporal powers.. One man declared that the Messiah had already come, and in the person of himself, while another beheaded his own brother on the Muhlegg, amidst 240 The Reformation. his admiring relations, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. The mutual exasperation of the cantons grew more intense day by day, and broke out in many . acts of violence. Werli, the Catholic avoyer in Frauenfeld, had done all that he could to put down the evangelical worship there. The Zurich- ers seized him when he was travelling, and, disre- garding the Unterwalden colors, which he wore on his cloak as a badge of office, executed him with- out a trial. The men of Schwyz retaliated by burning the reformed pastor of Uznach. Every man's hand was against his neighbor, and men scarcely dared travel from one canton to another, without an armed escort. But the state of the common bailiwicks was hard indeed. Their reli- gion was forcibly changed almost every year, and the evangelicals trembled at the coming of a Cath- olic bailiff, who would naturally do all the harm that he could during his short term of office, knowing that the next year his fellow-believers would undergo the same treatment. Early in 1529 the different cantons armed, and Zurich sent troops towards Thurgau and Zug, while Berne had ten thousand men, ready to act in case of need. On the other hand, the Waldstatten A Hard Knot. 243 and Zug made a league with the king of the Ro- mans, and with fifteen hundred men from Valais, marched to defend their frontier. They were pacified for the moment by mediators from Glarus and Strasburg, who arranged an agreement on the 26th of June, 1529, and the troops returned home, with the hope that peace would be lasting. They had scarcely done so, when the old quarrel broke out afresh. Zurich succeeded in suppress- ing the abbey of St. Gall ; Rapperschwyl gave up the ancient faith, and Toggenburg was about to follow. The Catholic cantons said at last, " This is a hard knot, which only the sword can loose." Zwingli and the men of Zurich were of the same opinion, but Berne proposed another method, and shut up the grain markets against the Waldstatten, for the purpose of starving them into submission, professing that her heart revolted against shedding the blood of her confederate brethren. But the perverse Waldstatten preferred the sword to fam- ine. Eight thousand of them marched towards Kappel, where they attacked a small body of Zurichers that was encamped there ; the greater number of them not having yet crossed the Albis. They hurried across the mountain, and arrived late in the day, almost worn out, to find their 244 The Reformation. brothers already annihilated. With these troops came their spiritual leader, Zwingli. He had gone into battle with the Roman Catholics in his youth, and he would not fail his Protestant followers now. He refused to make use of any weapon, but raised his voice and hands to encourage them in the battle that followed. But voice and hand were raised in vain. Weary and outnumbered, the Protestants fought for hours, and at length were broken and fled. Six hundred Zurich men were slain, and among them lay Zwingli, mor- tally wounded. He exclaimed, " What evil is this ? They can kill the body, but not the soul ! " As his companions fled he lay, still serene in his dying moments, with his eyes raised to the heaven he had tried to realize on earth. Some soldiers who came up ordered him to call upon the Virgin and the saints. Too feeble to speak, he shook his head, and one of them thrust him through with his sword. So passed from earth the greatest of the native Swiss reformers. The battle of Kappel was fought in October, 1531. Zwingli's death, and a defeat which the Bernese received from Lu- cerne two weeks later, forced the Protestants to conclude a peace, which restored the abbot of St. Gall, reestablished Solothurn as Catholic, and Geneva Stirred. 245 entirely stopped the progress of the Reformation in the common bailiwicks. Beyond the south-western limits of Switzerland the excitement concerning the new faith was almost as intense. In Valais, many adherents of the reformed church were found at Sion and at Leuk ; and in Vaud, Lausanne, and nearly all the other cities and districts became Protestant. More important than these, Geneva now began to be stirred by the commotions which preceded her establishment as the chief stronghold of the reformed doctrine in Switzerland. At this time Geneva was torn by the divisions created by three different authorities, the bishop, the count, and the burghers. The bishop had ruled spiritually over a large territory outside of Geneva, besides having the right of supremacy over the city, which had been granted long before by the French kings. Again, other rights over the town were held by the counts of Geneva, who became thus involved in constant disputes with both bishops and burghers. Their dangerous neighbor, the duke of Savoy, had also at one time been called upon to help the citizens against the count, and had now become another aspirant, who would willingly have accepted the cares of sover- 246 The Reformation. eignty over the prosperous city. The strength of the burghers lay in their own resolution, and in the alliance which one of their bishops had made for them with Berne and Freiburg in 1493. In 1504, the duke attempted the entire subjuga- tion of the city, and a twenty years struggle began between his adherents, who were known as Mame- lukes, and the Protestants, who took the name of Eidsgenossen, corrupted into Huguenots. The duke ill-treated the Huguenots, until many of them fled to Berne or Freiburg. His Savoyard nobility was ordered to harass the city in every possible way, while the bishop, one of his own relations, played into his hands on all occasions. The people stoutly resisted, inspired by two leaders, Berthelier, and Bonnivard, the Prior of St. Victor, " a young man, more resolute than prudent," who had been among the first to preach against the pope, and who had been some time be- fore -consulted by the Genevese on their intended change of religion. He replied to them with an unflinching truth, " You are zealous to reform the church," he said ; "and that is in itself a good thing. But how are you to reform it, unreformed as you are your- selves. You complain of the monks gambling and Chilian. 249 drinking, and you do the same things. It would be a great good for the priests to be replaced by ministers, but a great trouble to you, who only want to enjoy the unlawful pleasures which the priests allow you. If you want to reform them, march in the way yourselves first." With equal boldness he strove to break the yoke of the priests and the duke, and became so obnoxious to them that in 1530 he was seized, while on a journey in the Pays de Vaud, and carried off a prisoner to the castle of Chillon that Chillon which is so associated for us with the genius of Byron, that we are apt to forget, in the work of the poet, our first interest in the patriot. " Dark rise the old turrets, dark yet fair,- Round tower in graceful blending with square, And here a tall keep over all arisen." " And fair as ever the sun-rays fall On the lapping waters under the wall, And the view across still keeps its glory, Over the lake to the ramparts tall, And the great snow-mountains crowning all With that presence mighty as hoary. Savoy's stern dukes rule here no more; There is silence on that presence-floor Where herald and king bandied feudal manners; And the free Swiss cantons there keep in store, 250 The Reformation. Of rusty firelocks many a score And a dozen of red-cross banners. And then, the chamber of Bonnivard, Of victims at once the evilest-starred And the luckiest far, that one summer mcrning The English lord saw his place of guard, And the old renown of the castle marred With a glory that came without warning." Bonnivard was in prison, and Berthelier had been taken and executed ; but nothing could stop the opposition which had been roused in the Gen- evese. They changed their city government, and organized the council of the two hundred, which was liberal. At last, after Bonnivard had been in prison for some years, they grew bold enough to meet and conquer the duke's followers in a battle near the city walls, where the slaughter was so dreadful that their own leader cried out to them to " leave enough Savoyards alive to till the ground." When the duke tried to cut off their supplies, they fitted out boats filled with armed men, who landed in his dominions, and carried off their provisions almost under his eyes. Reinforced by several hundred men from Berne, they made their warfare offensive, and attacked and destroyed The Prisoner of Chilian. 251 Fort de 1'Ecluse, with many others of the enemy's strongholds. The last to fall was Chillon. Bonnivard had not been forgotten, and now, when they were about to attack the castle, every one cried out " Let us save the prisoners." His first intimation of what was going on was in the thunder of the cannonade upon the walls of his prison. When it fell at last and the victors landed upon the rock, their first question was if Bonnivard still lived. When they rushed into his dungeon, calling out, " You are free ! " his answer was, " And Geneva ? " " And Geneva also," they replied. His unused eyes could scarcely bear the light at first, and as he was led out, he looked back more than once like a man who is leaving his home forever. It is pleasant to observe, that his first public action after leaving Chillon, was to cast his vote, as a member of the council of Geneva, in opposition to some harsh measures that were proposed against the Roman Catholics. " There are seven pillars of Gothic mould In Chillon' s dungeons deep and old: There are seven columns, massy and gray, Dim with a dull imprisoned ray, A sunbeam which hath lost its way, 252 The Reformation. And through the crevice and the cleft Of the thick wall is fallen and left; Creeping o'er the floor so damp, Like a marsh's meteor lamp." " Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls; A thousand feet in depth below Its massy waters meet and flow: Thus much the fathom line was sent From Chillon's snow-white battlement, Which round about the wave enthralls. A double dungeon wall and wave Have made, and like a living grave. Below the surface of the lake The dark vault lies wherein we lay, We heard it ripple night and day. Sounding o'er our heads it knocked; And I have felt the winter's spray Wash through the bars when winds were high And wanton in the happy sky ; And then the very rock hath rocked, And I have felt it shake unshocked, Because I could have smiled to see The death that would have set me. free." CHAPTER XII. CALVIN IN GENEVA. [A. D. 15^6 TO 1564.] ON the 5th of August, 1536, the same year that Chillon was taken, there arrived in Geneva, the man whose name lives still in the town itself, and in the system of theology which is called after him. Jean Calvin (or Chauvin), was born at Noyon, in Picardy, in 1509, and was thus only eight years old when Luther posted his famous theses on the church-door, at Wittenberg. He came of a humble family, but his father was a clever man, who had raised himself by his talents and energy to be the procureur-fiscal of the district, and was thus enabled to give his children many advantages of education. His three sons were all brought up as ecclesiastics, and Jean held a sinecure office as chaplain, and received its income, when he was only twelve years old. In 1523, he was taken to Paris, by a noble family, and entered at the College de La Marche. 255 256 Calvin in Geneva. Then, and later at the College de Montaigne, he studied with a zeal beyond his years, but was of such a solitary and severe turn of mind, that he was not liked, and his companions nicknamed him, the " accusative case." When he was eighteen, his father decided on his stud} r ing law, and sent him to Orleans, where he wore himself out by study, and never again recovered his health. At Orleans his attention was first attract- ed to the study of the Scriptures by a translation of the Bible, which one of his relatives was making. He returned to Paris in 1529, and there, two years later, took place what he describes as " his sudden conversion." He writes, "a horror seized on my soul when I became conscious of my wretchedness. On a sudden the full knowledge of the truth, like a bright light, dawned upon me. And what was left for me, O Lord, but with tears and cries of supplication to abjure the old life which I now condemned, and to flee into thy path." It is impossible to read his account of this part of his life, without the mind's at once returning to another conversion, where, on the path of the traveller to Damascus "there shined round about him a light from heaven." It was, The "Institutes" 257 perhaps, at this time, that lie, like St. Paul, was so deeply impressed with that mysterious doctrine of predestination, which has become the best known of the Calvinistic system, and which influenced him later, on the most momentous day of his life. Meanwhile, he at once obeyed the heavenly voice. He began to see that renouncing the rule of Rome was not renouncing the Apostolic church ; but he did not at once seek, like Zwingli, to spread his opinions abroad. He longed for the seclusion of a life in which he might give himself up to the study of the Bible. But his light could not long be hidden. He wrote an address full of the ideas of the Reformation, " the new learning,'' for his friend, Nicholas Cop, to deliver on his installation as rector of the University of Paris. The two friends were at once obliged to fly from the storm they had raised. For four years Calvin wandered about from city to city. He went first to Noyon, where he gave up the benefices he could no longer conscientiously hold ; to Basel, where he published his " Institutes," a noble work in defence of Protestants ; to the Court of the queen of Navarre, at Beam ; and to that of her sister, the duchess of Navarre. These 258 Calvin in Geneva. two women, the sisters of Francis I., are worthy to be remembered as the constant protectors of Protestants. At last, on his way to Strasburg, he stopped at Geneva, intending to remain for one night only. That one night was to change the whole course of his life. A report was spread through the town that a young man, with yellow complexion and piercing eyes, had alighted at the inn, and that this young man was no less than the writer of the Institutes. Farel went to him at once, with the prayer that he would stay and help him in his half-finished work. Calvin urged in reply, " that he did not wish to bind himself to remain in any one place, and that he preferred to study rather than to teach." Farel answered that " he might go to his studies, but that the curse of God would strike him if he refused to put his hand to the work." Calvin yielded at once. He heard the prophet of God speaking in Farel's words, and it was not for him, the Almighty's humble instru- ment, to refuse. In a few days, he began his work in Geneva by a series of theological lectures in St. Peter's church, and a confession of faith which Farel had drawn up, was presented to the people, and for- Stringent Laws. 261 mally accepted by them. Very stringent laws as to the way of life of the reformed citizens were soon put into effect, as well as severe regulations concerning church discipline and services. Danc- ing and card-playing were forbidden by the mag- istrates, and a hair-dresser was imprisoned for two days for arranging a bride's hair with too much attention to vanity. The four great festivals of the year, which had been retained in Berne, were no longer celebrated at Geneva. The quiet student, who dreaded strife, very soon found the greater part of the citizens rebelling against his excessive strictness. He came into conflict, also, with the city authorities, and after two years, he and Farel were driven from Geneva by a vote of the council. Calvin went to Stras- burg, where, in 1539, he married the widow of an Anabaptist preacher, whom he had converted, and with whom he lived very happily until her death, nine years later. Three years after their ignominious departure, the reformers were recalled by the desire of all the better classes of citizens, who had come to feel their need of a stronger government than that of the liberal, or as it was called the " libertine " party. The Catholics wer*e also making a strong effort to bring back the city 262 Calvin in Geneva. to the fold, and the city turned to Calvin as its one hope. The people and magistrates went out of the city to welcome him back, and to present him with the munificent gift of a new cloak, at the same time imploring him never to leave them again. The whole government was now settled accor- ding to his will. Unlike Zwingli, he wished the church to be distinct from the state, or rather to be entirely its ruler. The consistory, composed of the ministers and twelve elders, regulated, with a perfect despotism, the most trifling details of family life. Every house was visited at least once a year. Family quarrels were inquired into, drunkenness was punished severely, and, above all, any case of laxness as to attendance on public worship and "sermons," was immediately reported, and treated with great rigor. All the children were duly trained in the catechism of Calvin, and taken to school, whence, after long repetitions of psalms and commandments, they were carefully taken home by the regents, who allowed no foolish laughing nor talking by the way. The "Venerable Company," as the ministers were called, met once a month for mutual crit- icism and discussion, and it is probable that the )VLK THE RUSSEIX-TOBEL. Calvin s Civil Law. 263 former occupation at least was not wanting. They also examined the candidates for the ministry, who were obliged to come up to a high standard both of attainments and character. From Calvin down, they put themselves under the same strict discipline which they inflicted upon others, and would probably have invented something more severe, had their minds been capable of imagining it. In the framing of the civil law, Calvin had also the chief part, and, taking the books of Moses as his model, sought to make Geneva a sixteenth century imitation of a Hebrew community. Un- der his code, the most innocent recreations were treated as sins; to give the names of Catholic saints to children was a penal offence, while any idolatry or blasphemy was followed by death. In 1565, the year after his death, a woman was beaten for singing secular words to a psalm-tune, and later a gentleman was imprisoned for reading what was considered a profane book. ^. child was beheaded for striking its father and mother ; in short, for many years the prisons were kept full, and the executioner was always busy. The power of Calvin became so great, that he was known to the Catholic world as "the sovereign 264 Calvin in Geneva. pontiff of heresy," and Geneva was called the Protestant Rome. Yet his way of living remained as simple as ever. Cardinal Sadolet, wishing to visit him, and inquiring for his palace, was re- ceived hy a badly-dressed man, who opened his own door for the visitor. He was supposed to be rich, but the property which he left at his death, amounted to barely two hundred dollars. Though he was looked up to by his followers in Geneva as one who spoke with divine authority, he always remained unpopular as a man. His feeling was entirely for his great cause, and for the mass of Protestant worshippers everywhere, and it seemed impossible for him to share that innate sympathy which brought Luther " home to the business and bosoms of common men." He was equally far removed from that easy toleration of an indifference that has no opinions at all, and from the higher toleration of the few rare spirits of every age, who hold firmly by their own con- victions, while they respect those of others. In addition, his natural quick temper was so aggra- vated by constant ill-health, that his severity brought one of his friends to the point of saying, "It is better to live in hell with Beza, than in heaven with Calvin." He considered it a want of Servetus. 267 religious spirit in Protestant rulers to refrain from persecuting unbelievers when they had the chance ; and one of the greatest blots on his administra- tion is the execution of Michael Servetus, for heresy. Servetus was a clever, restless Spaniard, who, having written two atheistical books, and also conducted a hostile correspondence with Calvin, put himself in his enemy's power, by venturing within the walls of Geneva. By Cal- vin's influence he was arrested, convicted, and burned at the stake, October 27, 1553. Calvin was just then engaged in a violent conflict with the enemies whom his strictness excited, and though he finally triumphed, he was almost ex- hausted by his victory. Insults were heaped upon him. The very dogs in the streets were called by his name, and in one night no less than fifty shots were fired before his house. With unconscious pathos he writes in the preface to the Psalms,* of the scenes of strife through which he, " by nature unwarlike and tim- orous," had been forced to pass. In the last years of his life, he had the happiness of seeing Geneva free from party strife, and with all the institutions he had created growing and flourishing. It had become the refuge of oppressed Protestants of all 268 Calvin in G-eneva. nations, who fled from their homes to the asylum which he offered. Thither came the great Knox, who preached to a congregation of the English and Scotch refugees, while he waited and prayed for better times in his own Scotland. There, in 1558, he published his " First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women," which, directed against Mary Queen of Scots, succeeded in rousing also the ire of Elizabeth of England. In both England and Scotland, Calvin's influ- ence was very great. He wrote to the Protector Somerset concerning the welfare of Protestantism, and laid before Archbishop Cranmer his favorite plan for the union of evangelical churches. He extended the hand of fellowship to the reformers everywhere, in Austria and Poland, in the far distant Denmark and Sweden. His friend and companion, the gentle Beza, says, " He bore all these churches on his shoulders." As his health grew feebler, he only increased his work, in antic- ipation of the fast-coming night, when he should work no more. From his sick bed he regulated the progress of the Reformation in France. When he could no longer stand, he was carried to a session of the senate, and as his end drew near, he sent for its Calvin's Life and Death. 269 members to meet at his bedside. A great artist has given to the world the picture of this parting. Calvin thanked them for all they had done for him, and asked their forgiveness for his many out- bursts of anger. He could say with truth that whatever his shortcomings, his heart had been given to the service of their republic. He warned them of the necessity of watchfulness and humility to keep off the dangers which still threatened their state, and, after making a fervent prayer, took leave of them with many tears. Two da} r s later, he gathered about him the min- isters of the city. To them he retraced his life among them. He had gone through many con- flicts. He described how he had been bitten by the dogs which the people had set upon him, and how his sleep had been broken by the pistol-shots of his enemies. " Think," he said, " what an im- pression that must have made on a poor scholar, shy and timid as I then was." He went on to ask their pardon for his many faults, and especially for his vehement temper. As to his teachings and writings, he could only say that he believed God had given him grace to work earnestly and not knowingly to pervert a single passage of the Scrip- tures. He then exhorted them concerning their 270 Calvin in Creneva. own duties, and finally shook hands with them all. " We parted from him," says Beza, ' ; with our eyes bathed in tears, and our hearts filled with unspeak- able grief." A few days after this he died, on the 27th of May, 1564. The character of Calvin rises above his sur- roundings as the mountains rise round about Geneva ; but the heights of his nature are too rugged to have anything in common with the green valleys and gentle lake beneath. Living for years in the midst of that beautiful scenery, he never once refers to it, and it would have been no matter of regret to him that he has been written of with admiration, with veneration even, but not often with tenderness and poetry. It is not won- derful that Byron's verse turns from the city of the reformer to dwell on the scenes of loveliness near which it stood. Clear placid Leman ! thy contrasted lake, With the wild world I dwelt in, is a thing Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring. This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing To waft me from distraction ; once I loved Torn ocean's roar, but thy soft murmuring Sounds sweet as if a sister's voice reproved, That I with stern delight should e'er have been so moved. THE REICHENBACH. ON THE WAY TO ROSENLAUL Leman. 273 It is the hush of night, and all between Thy margin and the mountains, dusk, yet clear, Mellowed and mingling, yet distinctly seen, Save darkened Jura, whose capt heights appear Precipitously steep; and, drawing near. There breathes a living fragrance from the shore, Of flowers yet fresh with childhood : on the ear Drops the light drip of the suspended oar, Or chirps the grasshopper one good-night carol more CHAPTER XIII. RELIGIOUS TROUBLES. [A. D. 1584 TO 1620.] IV TOT WITHSTANDING the fame which Ge- neva had acquired in the last forty years, the confederates had no wish to admit, as a four- teenth member of their league, the city that had passed through such exciting scenes. Geneva, therefore, remained an independent republic, unit- ed in a defensive alliance with Berne. Both cities found their advantage in this arrangement. Berne had recently conquered the whole of Vaud, of which she had been obliged to grant a share to Freiburg and the Valais, keeping the greater part of the spoil herself In Geneva she found a means of help in case of insurrection among the Vaudois, and a strong fortress against the en- croachments of Savoy, while Geneva, on her side, had had reason to know* that Berne was a sure ally in case of need. The history of Switzerland for eighty-four years 274 DEVIL'S BRIDGE. OX THE ST. GOTTHAKD ROAD. Aggressive Protestantism. 275 after Calvin's death, is a simple recital of perpet- ual religious wars and tumults. During these troubles in which the Catholics, who saw the sceptre departing from them, were generally the aggressors, the Protestants became at last so em- bittered that they refused to believe that any good could come out of Rome. Thus, in 1582, they utterly refused to receive the new calendar, because it had been perfected by the order of the Pope Gregory XIII., and were ready for a civil war, rather than accept any improvement from that source. The strife of this period soon began in the Italian bailiwicks which the Swiss had conquered during their mercenary wars in the beginning of the century. In Locarno, Socinius had preached much freer doctrines than those of Zwingli or Calvin, and had made many converts. As soon as the Catholic bailiffs came into power, these converts were pursued, and driven out into exile or death. At last, all evangelicals of every sect were ordered to leave the district in March of the year 1555. One hundred and fifty heads of families were ordered to appear in the council- house, and there listened to the sentence which banished them from their homes at this cold sea- son of the year. As the reading was finished, the 276 Religious Troubles. papal nuncio entered, and protested against the clemency of the sentence. He would have all their goods taken from them, and their children kept in Locarno, to be brought up in the true faith. But the Catholic confederates, more human than the priest, refused to alter their sentence. The exiles took their wives and children, and crossed the mountains through the ice and snow, to seek a refuge among the Protestants of Zurich. Like the Flemish artisans, who fled to England, from similar persecutions, they brought a bless- ing to the city that received them. They pos- sessed the art of weaving silk, and in a short time they had set up dye-houses and mills, and had begun to do their part in making Zurich the prosperous city that she is to-day ; with number- less factories on the left bank of the Limmat, and the store-houses which contain her manufactures on the right ; where at the foot of Uto, " Zurich in the quiet vale Feeds her free sons; behind. Receding vine-clad hills. Unclouded beamed the top of silver Alps; And warmer beat the heart of gazing youths, And warmer to their fair Companions spoke its glow. Dissension Stirred up. 277 And Haller's Doris sang, the pride of song; And Hirzel's Daphne, clear to Kleist and Gleim; And we youths sang, and felt As each were Hagerdorn." If the confederates themselves could have made up their minds to live in peace together there were others who would never have allowed it, for their interests lay in the opposite direction. The Catholic cantons were constantly beset by the French ambassadors, and by the pope's nuncio, who wanted to bring the reformed Swiss back to the church ; or, failing that, to injure them in all possible ways. He tried to sow jealousies among them, especially of the preponderance of Berne, and to get back Geneva under the rule of the duke of Savoy. His efforts in this direction were foiled. The two cities stood by each other firmly, and in 1581 Zurich also entered into a perpetual alliance with Geneva. At that time there appeared among the notable defenders of the pope, the cardinal Carlo Borro- meo. This young prelate, pious and energetic, with boundless ambition for his church, had de- voted his life to the task of strengthening it against the storm which threatened its very exist- ence. He was clear-sighted, or, perhaps, simply 278 Religious Troubles. good enough to see that some reform was neces- sary from within, and, in fact, did much to im- prove the morals of the clergy in Italy, and to prevent the reformation from taking deep root in that country. Neither did he neglect Switzerland, and while he worked openly and secretly against the reformed schools, he established at Milan a seminary for the } r oung Swiss, which was one of the noblest of its kind. He also founded the schools which were the ancestors of all Sunday Schools, and which have kept their three hun- dredth anniversary within a few years. The other work which Borromeo designed for the good of the Swiss, was terrible in its effects. He stirred up the Catholic cantons to the under- taking of a Holy War against the evangelicals. After years of effort on his part, "the Golden Borromean League " was sworn to by seven can- tons, in October 1586. This league consisted of the four Waklstatten, with Zug, Freiburg and Solo- thurn. These cantons are those which, with Valais and Ticino, make up the Catholic Switzerland of our own day. The small city of Solothurn, which we have seen admitted on the same day as Freiburg, held most tenaciously to her old faith and customs, and especially to her belief in the St. Verena. 279 St. Verena, whose singular triumph over Satan has been preserved for us in the ballad of Von Laufenburg. In the deep glen at the foot of the mountains this holy maiden had her dwelling, where the sick who even crossed her threshold, were instantly cured, and the untamed creatures of the forest guarded her cell by night. The Evil One, full of hatred and envy, had long sought to destroy her in vain, and at last, thought he had found his opportunity. ' ' And as she with fervor praying, Knelt in morning's rosy hour, There stands Satan right behind her; Now her life is in his power. With both hands the grinning monster, See! a giant boulder grasps: High above him swings it fiercely; Sympathetic nature gasps. One more instant and he'll hurl it, Surely crush her in the place ; But she hears a sudden rustling, Backward turns her angel-face. Such a flood of radiant beauty Blinds him with its dazzling light; Poised he holds the rock above him, And forgets his fury quite. From his mind reflection's traces Have so clean departed, all, 280 Religious Troubles. That he lets the trembling boulder On his toes directly fall. But what vexes him most sorely, Fills his soul with spite and shame, Is, that only ' limping devil ' Since that day has been his name." In the name of St. Verena, then, Solothurn joined her companions in the effort to destroy the evil one, in the shape of the evangelicals, and from that time, the Catholic cantons were more than ever united with foreign powers. Swiss troops fought with Philip II. for the extirpa- tion of heresy in the Netherlands ; and eight thousand Swiss troops were paid by the French king to assist in the destruction of his Huguenot subjects. On St. Bartholomew's day it was a Swiss who claimed the evil distinction of having given the great Coligny his mortal wound ; and every one of the Swiss corps was rewarded by the king, for his share in the work, by a gift of ten crowns, and a share in the pillage of certain rich houses. But their untravelled brethren at home had not yet reached the moral standard of Cath- erine de Medici. As the Huguenot fugitives poured over the Jura into Switzerland, bringing the news of the massacre, the Catholic cantons Domestic Strife. 283 were so shocked as to entertain serious thoughts of giving up their French alliance. Just then, deputies arrived from Charles IX., and pro- ceeded to explain the facts. Coligny had himself been engaged in a conspiracy against the king, and the Swiss guards had been attacked by the Huguenots on the steps of the palace. True, the Swiss guards had not heard before of this attack, but it was the old story of the wolf and the lamb, and the cantons were finally persuaded of the French court's clemency to heretics. Beside the foreign religious quarrels, the Swiss had enough on their hands at home. The little canton of Appenzell was divided by bitter strife. The districts below the mountains towards Lake Constance, were inhabited by weavers of German descent, who had become Protestants, while high above them towards the Santis mountains, lived the shepherds of Romansch race and speech, who clung to the faith of their fathers. The only way to put an end to the struggle was found in the division of the canton into two parts, Appenzell Inner Rhodes, and Appenzell Outer Rhodes, or bands. The act of separation was signed after ten years' trouble, on the 8th of September, 1597. The arms in the arsenal, the seals and banners, 284 Religious Troubles. the lands and rights, were divided as equally as possible, and from that day, each half canton has had its deputy and vote in the general diet. As these deputies make it a point of conscience to vote against each other on every question, their in- fluence on the affairs of Switzerland is but small ; but they make up for it by the importance of their style. Until lately each half canton had its agent at all the courts of Europe, who sent their agents in return. During all the eighteen years of Louis Philippe's reign, Appenzell Inner Rhodes refused to acknowledge him, and it was not until after his abdication that his kingship was accepted as a fact by the conservative shepherds. A few years after the division of Appenzell, Geneva was able to foil a new attack from Savoy. The duke had arranged a plan for its capture, which was attempted on the night of the llth of December, 1602. The Savoyards, with a detatch- ment of Spaniards, scaled the city walls by means of three ladders. One of the sentinels on guard heard a slight noise, however, and instantly dis- charged his piece ; the alarm was given, and a cannon ball, fired at random along the wall, de- stroyed all three ladders at once. At the same time the portcullis was dropped, and the assailants Conflict in Valais. 285 who had entered the town were cut off from the troops ovitside. They did not realize this at first, and advanced with their battle cries of " Espagne ! Savoye ! tue ! tue ! " but the aroused citizens, pouring half armed into the streets, soon showed them their mistake. Cannon balls swept down their ranks, and many were killed in the streets, or retreating towards their ladders, fell into the fosse below. The city records have immortalized a tailor, who performed great deeds of valor, and a woman, who broke a soldier's head with an iron pot. The next day the venerable Beza gave out from his pulpit the one hundred and twenty-fourth psalm, which has been sung by the Genevese ever since 011 the anniversary of the " Escalade." About the same time the people of the Valais had their last conflict about religion, in which the reformed party was beaten. Refusing to abjure their faith, the members of the reformed party were driven out with their ministers, and the land of their father's saw them no more. Religious strife was now stayed for a time by the " black death," which returned once more to des- olate the cities of Switzerland. In 1610 it reached Basel, where nearly four thousand died. In the next year it reached Berne, Freiburg, and Solo- 286 Religious Troubles. thurn, where the good saint's protection failed to deliver her citizen's from its fury. In 1612, Zurich, Glarus, and Appenzell followed, while in Thurgau whole villages were depopulated. It reached even the high valleys of the Orisons, where it was followed by a long war, nearly as desolating. The beautiful district of the Valtelina was the apple of discord between the different powers who coveted it. The king of Spain had lately made himself master of the Milanese, and wanted it to extend his territory to the Austrian frontier. Ven- ice, fearing the union of Spain and Austria, stepped in to warn the confederates of this design. The principal men in the Grisons were divided into two parties, one for Spain, headed by Rudolf Planta, one that longed for a French alliance, led \)y Hercules of Salis. While they were dis- puting, the Spanish governor of Milan quietly built a fortress on a mountain near Lake Como, which he called after himself, " Fuentes." This was to overawe the valleys of Chiavenna and Valtel- lina, and to give him the command of the Splil- gen pass into Italy. War soon followed. In the valley of the Engadine, two armed bodies Religious Persecutions. 287 marched against each other, headed by the broth- ers Travers. Shots had been fired on both sides, and some men were already killed, when the women of the place rushed between their husbands and broth- ers, and persuaded them to disarm. In 1618 the reformed pastors met for business at Bergun, and took the opportunity to excite then party against certain supposed Catholic conspirators. Rudolf Flanta fled into the Tyrol, and the pastors, with their leader, Jenatsch, established a criminal court at Thusis, where they proceeded with the greatest cruelty against their adversaries. The Planta's were declared outlaws ; Rusca, the pious and gentle arch-priest of Valtelina, and Zambra, the landamann of Pregall, were tortured and put to death, though nothing was proved against them. The friends of the ill-treated Catholics gathered to avenge their wrongs. Part of the Gray League marched upon Coire, while the Engadine and Brettigau armed against them. Intervention and compromise followed, but peace was made only to be broken again. In 1620, the Plantas went to invite Austria to invade their country, while their brother-in-law Robustelli, with a troop of Milanese 288 Religious Troubles. vagabonds, planned and carried out a horrible massacre in the Valtelina. On the 19th of July, an imitation of all the horrors of the St. Bartholo- mew's day, was begun at Tirano. Old men, wo- men, and little children were put to death without mercy. From village to village, during several days, the reformed were beaten, strangled, or shot, and thrown into the river Adda, which ran red with their blood. All that was most sacred in their religion was profaned, and the head of the pastor of Tirano was seen on a pike in his pulpit, as a warning to those of his faith. The Protestant cantons were roused at last, and Berne .and Zurich sent three thousand men to the aid of their brethren of the Orisons. The Bern- ese were beaten the first year in a battle where they lost all their officers but one ; but the next spring, the troops of the Reformed valleys met those of the Gray League and Catholic canton, and drove them over the mountains into Uri. The arch-duke of Austria at last made up his mind to interfere. " Since you want war, yon shall have it," he exclaimed, and marched his troops to con- quer the Orisons for himself. CHAPTER XIV. AVAR AVITH AUSTRIA. GENEVA IN THE SEATEN- TEENTH CENTURY. [A. D. 1621 TO 1650.] IN the autumn of 1621, the Austrian troops ap- peared in the Grisons, where the imperial general, Baldiron soon became known in the Ten Jurisdictions by the name of the new Holofernes. He passed through the country, burning and des- troying everywhere, until the people, surrounded by troops, were forced to take the oath of alle- giance to Austria, on their knees. With the army came Capuchin monks to reconvert the people, and the reformed clergy were driven out. The peasants of the Brettigau took refuge in the thick forests, but with no idea of submission. These woods be- came their arsenal ; they cut heavy clubs and drove large nails into their heads. These weapons had served them in their early struggles with Austria, and they would answer their purpose now. Their knives were turned into daggers, and their scythes into spears, and on Palm Sunday 289 290 War with Austria. 1622, they attacked the Austrian camp, killed four hundred, and drove the rest out of the country. All the Protestants of the Grisons rose at once, and Appenzell sent them reinforcements. Baldiron had retired, but soon returned with ten thousand men. Terrible massacres followed his triumphal course through the country. Neither old age nor childhood was spared, and the country was stripped of all necessaries, until, nothing else being left, the soldiers carried off the bells from the churches. Of the wretched people that re- mained, some found their way to other countries, while others died of the plague, or wandered into the woods to perish. The Catholic cantons re- joiced at these misfortunes, and 'the Protestant Swiss, who sympathized with them, found that sympathy was all they had to give. The burgo- master of Zurich wrote to them ; " Dear allies, place no reliance on any help from us now We have too much to do at home. For the present, do your best to save your country from utter destruction. Fortunately for the unhappy Grisons, the jeal- ousy of France was now excited, by the prospect of the Austrians becoming all powerful in Italy, from their right of passage over the Rhaetian Alps. TIIE WETTERHORN AND WEELHORX FROM ROSENLAUI. Grustavus Adolphus. 293 A French army appeared, followed by troops from Zurich, Berne, and the Valais, who had at last come to the aid of their oppressed allies. Once more Austria was driven out, and the Italian valleys, including the Valtelina, ik that Helen of another Trojan war," were reconquered, and obliged to pay a certain tribute to the Grisons. In 1629 the emperor of Germany sent an army of forty thousand men into the Grisons, and for the time the sword became the only law, and it seemed as if the last trace of liberty had vanished. But there were still men among the Grisons who did not despair, and their salvation came at last from an unexpected source. The Protestant hero of the Thirty Years' War, Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, was pressing the German emperor hard in his own dominions, and he was at last forced to call back his troops from Switzerland, in order to use them nearer home. It would be hard to describe the joy of the people, when the last German troops had crossed their frontier, and the last Austrian fortress had been blown up and demolished. Their first step was to come together and once more renew the ancient league to which their forefathers had sworn at Davos and itt Trons. Never again were they re- 294 War with Austria. duced to such misery as during this first half of the seventeenth century. In a few years they had recovered their subject territory, and in 1639, a general peace was made at Milan, where the Ori- sons' rights were fully acknowledged, with the proviso, that the Catholic church should retain its power in Bormio, Valtelina, and Chiavenna. A few years more, and Austria lost the semblance of power Avhich she had kept in the Ten Jurisdic- tions, which became free as the other leaguers, Davos remaining the chief place, and retaining her ancient honors. The diet was to assemble there, and the banners and archives of the league were to remain there forever. Though the confederate cantons had not fallen into the depths of misery which their neighbors had fathomed during this gloomy period, yet there had been hard and dark days for them also. The divisions caused by the differences of religion were as broad, if not quite as deep, as when the confed- erates had marched against each other at Kappel. Their money was spent in embassies and arma- ments, their time was consumed in fruitless dis- cussions in diets and councils, where the Catholics opposed whatever the reformers wished, and the reformers withstood every proposition of the Cath- Heavy Taxes. 295 olics, entirely outside of the question of its merits. The Catholics held with Spain and Austria, and received their pay, while the Protestants ranged themselves with France, on account of her oppo- sition to Spain. It was scarce!} 7 wonderful that Berne and Zurich should have found it impossible to give much help to the persecuted Grisons. The cantons were united only on one point, which was, with the instinct of self-preservation, to keep their soil free from the march of the for- eign armies that now desolated Germany. Even in this they did not always succeed. At Stein, in Zurich, at Schaffhausen, and in the bishopric of Basel, Swedish or German armies were at differ- ent times encamped, to the infinite torment of the people. Against these proceedings, the cantonal governments made only feeble protests, but while they wrote polite notes to the generals of the different armies, the Swiss peasants were very apt to step in, and testify their disapproval of the plunderers by very substantial blows. As a consequence of keeping so many negotia- tions going on, and so many useless soldiers under arms, heavy taxes were imposed, which led to great discontent. In 1641, the country people of Berne were so frightened at the idea of these impositions, 296 War with Austria. that the people of the Emmenthal rebelled. The city of Berne was garrisoned, and troops were sent to the different towns of the canton to restore peace. In Zurich an extraordinary real-estate tax brought about a similar insurrection. In Knonau and Wadenschwyl the people obstinately refused to pay this tax, until troops were sent to occupy their villages and disarm them. Their leaders were put to death and a heavy fine was exacted from the two communes. Another vexation to the hearts of Swiss magis- trates was the coming of immense numbers of " heimathslosen," or people whose native towns in Germany or Italy had been destroyed by the Thirty Years' War. Their presence and mainte- nance became very burdensome to a country where every individual was intended to have a fixed home and visible means of support. Quite distinct from the distinguished, or hard-working refugees, who had always been sheltered by the little republic, these vagabonds wandered about the country, entirely refusing to work, and everywhere exciting the people against the magistrates. They became so numerous that at last they made the land un- safe for travellers, and severe measures were taken against them. At Bremgarten in Aargau, two Pilate's Corpse. 297 hundred and thirty-six were executed in one year for different crimes, until the body took alarm, and vanished for the time. Amidst all these troubles we turn with relief to Lucerne, which alone of the large towns, seems to have escaped the disturbances of the other chief cities. Oil the shores of its beautiful lake, it was beset only by the storms which broke from the cloud-capped head of Mount Pilatus. " Mount Frackmontwtih the well-known lake Of Pilate, is the next we make." " Cast a stone in, and you'll find At once a fearful storm will blow ; The rain will pour, the lightning glow. In ancient records- you may read The truth, as we are all agreed, That in this awful lake doth rest The corpse of Pilate, man unblest." Every one in Lucerne knows the story of how that corpse was brought to the little lake, after having been taken out of the Tiber, the Rhone, and Lake Leman successively, on account of the terrible storms which its presence raised upon the waters above it. Their Alpine lake was freed from this trouble by a student of Salamanca, whose power- ful spells brought the ghost of Pilate to terms. It 298 War with Austria. was forced to leap, on a black mare, into the depths of the lake, whence it can only return on Good Friday of every year. The student of course succeeded, and now Pilate is quiet, except when people speak insultingly of him, or cast stones into the water where he vanished. We leave Mount Pilatus with the description of Edwin Arnold : " He riseth alone, alone and proud, From the shore of an emerald sea ; His crest hath a shroud of the crimson cloud, For a king of the Alps is he ; Standing alone, as a king should stand, With his foot on the fields of his own broad land. And never a storm from the shores of the north Comes sweeping along the sky, But it emptieth forth the first of its wrath On the crags of that mountain high ; And the voice of those crags has a tale to tell, That the heart of the hearer shall treasure well. A tale of a brow that was bound with gold, And a heart that was bowed with sin ; Of a fierce deed told of the days of old That might never sweet mercy win ; Of legions in steel that .were waiting by For the death of the God that could never die. But climb the crags when the storm has rule, And the spirit that rides the blast, And hark to his howl as he sweeps the pool Where the Roman groaned his last ; FLANTS. AND SHRUBS. LAKE OF GEVEV/ Wettstein of Basel 301 And to thee shall the tongue of the tempest tell A record too sad for the poet's skill. The peace of Westphalia, in 1648, ended the great religious war of Europe, and to the con- gress which preceded it, the Swiss were allowed to send a deputy, though the}' had taken no part in the war. In this peace the emperor finally re- nounced all claims upon the Swiss cantons as members of the empire of Germany. It is true that very few traces of imperial rule had remained among them. It survived only in the title of im- perial city, still held by some of the towns, in the eagle on their public buildings and their money, and in the pretension of the German court to con- stitute itself the last court of appeals for Switzer- land. The success of the Swiss in this matter was chiefly due to their deputy, Wettstein, the burgo- master of Basel, a man whose tact, activity, and utter absence of pretension had enabled him to walk safely on his own path in the midst of court intrigues. He received no pay from the cantons, and lived simply on his own income, but he was entertained with distinction by the French and German ambassadors, and obtained so much con- sideration that he was called " the king of the Swiss." *302 Geneva in the Seventeenth Century. On his return from his mission, the declaration of their independence was read in every village, and drums and trumpets proclaimed the joyful fact that their freedom was recognized by Europe. Thenceforth the cantons were no longer addressed by the emperor as, " Beloved and faithful to our- selves and the empire," but were styled, " Strong, steadfast, honored, and especially dear." Of Geneva, during the Thirty Years' War, we find the best picture, in the pages of " Evelyn's Diary," which describe his visit there, on his way home from Italy, in 1621. " The town," he writes, " lying between Germany, France, and Italy, those three tongues are familiarly spoken by the inhabi- tants. It is a strong, well fortified city, part of it built on a rising ground. The houses are not des- picable, but the high pent-houses, for I can hardly call them cloisters, being all of wood, through which the people pass dry and in the shade, sum- mer and winter, exceedingly deform the fronts of the buildings. Here are abundance of book-sellers, but their books are of ill impressions ; these, with watches (of which store are made here), crystal, and excellent screwed guns, are the staple commod- ities. All provisions are good and cheap. The town-house is fairly built of stone ; the portico has Geneva Described. 303 four black marble columns ; and on a table of the same, under the city arms, a demi-eagle and cross between cross-keys, is a motto, ' Post Tenebras Lux.' " The territories about the town are not so large as many ordinary gentlemen have about their country farms, for which cause they are in a con- tinual watch, especially on the Savoy side ; but in case of any siege the Swiss are at hand " In the Senate House were fourteen anoient urns, dug up as they were removing earth in the for- tifications. A little out of the town is a spacious field, which they call Campus Martius ; and well it may be so termed, with better reason than that at Rome at present (which is no more a field, but all built into streets), for here, on every Sunday, after the evening devotions, this precise people permit their youth to exercise arms, and shoot in guns and in the long and cross-bows, in which they are exceedingly expert, reported to be as dexterous as any people in the world At the side of the field is a very noble pall-mall, but it turns with an elbow. There is also a bowling place, a tavern and a trey-table, and here they ride their menaged horses. It is also the usual place of public execu- 304 Creneva in the Seventeenth Century. tion of those who suffer for any capital crime, though committed in another country " On Sunday I heard Dr. Diodati preach in French and after the French mode, in a gown with a cape, and his hat on. The church govern- ment is severely Presbyterian, after the discipline of Calvin and Beza, who set it up, but nothing so rigid as either our Scots or English sectaries of that denomination. In the afternoon, Monseiur Morice, a most learned young person and excellent poet, chief professor of the University, preached at St. Peters, a spacious Gothic fabric. This was heretofore a cathedral and a reverend pile. It has four turrets, on one of which stands a continual sentinel, in another, cannons are mounted. The church is very decent within, nor have they at all defaced the painted windows, which are full of pictures of saints " On Monday I was invited to a little garden without the works, where were many rare tulips, anemones, and other choice flowers. The Rhone, running athwart the town, out of the lake, makes half the city a suburb, which, in imitation of Paris, they call the St. Germain's Fauxbourg On two wooden bridges that cross the river, are several water-mills and shops of trades, especially smiths Evelyn at Geneva. 305 and cutlers : between the bridges is an island, in the midst of which is a very ancient tower, said to have been built by Julius Caesar. At the end of the other bridge is the mint, with a fair sun-dial. Passing again by the town house, I saw a large crocodile hanging in chains ; and against the wall of one of the chambers, seven judges were painted without hands, except one in the middle, who has but one hand ; I know not the story. The arsenal is at the end of this building, well furnished and kept. " After dinner, Mr. Morice led us to the college, a fair structure ; in the lower part are the schools, which consist of nine classes, and a hall above, where the students assemble ; also a good library. They showed us a very ancient Bible of about three hundred years old, in the vulgar French, and a MS. in the old monkish character ; here have the professors their lodgings. I also went to the hospital, which is very commodious ; but the Bishop's Palace is now a prison. " This town is not much celebrated for beautiful women, for even at this distance from the Alps, the gentlewomen have something full throats ; but our Captain Wray (afterwards Sir William, SOD of that Sir Christopher, who had both been in 806 Geneva in the Seventeenth Century. arms against his Majesty for the Parliament) fell in love so violently with one of Monseiur Sala- cline's daughters that, with much persuasion, he could not be prevailed on to think on his journey, into France. ... I passed the journey with- out inconvenience from sickness, but it was an extraordinarily hot, unpleasant season and journey, by reason of craggy ways." So end Evelyn's impressions of the city, in which it is rather a comfort to find that the " pre- cise people," allow themselves the relaxations of riding menaged horses, playing bowls, and even falling in love, and that the painted windows and pictures of saints had not been banished from " the decent church ; " though giving the saints names was an offence. But Geneva at this period was making vast progress in all directions. The sci- ence of all Europe was received there, at a time when Kepler and Copernicus were publishing their discoveries, and when Des Cartes was rising into fame. The writings of Grotius had reached there, and his works on diplomacy had replaced Machia- velli's book. In 1611, a professorship of philosophy was established in Geneva, and in 1628 one of mathematics. In Eastern Switzerland, meantime, industries Prosperity. 307 grew and throve. The silks of Zurich became famous, and the linens of St. Gall and Appenzell were sought in the Lyon's markets. In the can- tons where the Romansch language was spoken, the people's darkness was lightened by a few rays of French literature. Historians who were natives of the soil sprang up in the Orisons, among the men who, in their youth, had taken an active part in the deeds they now recorded. For a time both parties rested from their religious strife, and children studied the Heidelberg catechism in the Reformed, and went to mass in the Catholic can- tons, without opposition. CHAPTER XV. PEASANT REVOLTS. THE TOGGENBURGER WAR. [A. D. 1650 TO 1712.] ABOUT the middle of the seventeenth century there was growing up, in all the cantons except the Waldstatten, a feeling of strong dis- content among the peasants, who still suffered from many of the tyrannies which had descended to them from the old days of serfdom. They felt the painful contrast between their lot and that of the three old cantons, where every peasant voted for his own magistrates and his own laws, and helped to decide the taxes and contributions which he should pay. If the other cantons, on the contrary, had a bad bailiff or governor, they were obliged to accept him, much as if he were a bad harvest, and to receive the beatings and im- prisonments which fell to them with the submis- sive hope that something better might be in store for them next year. But now that their liberty 308 Freedom. 309 had been proclaimed at Westphalia, they were inspired with the idea of trying to make it a reality ; an idea which the nobles who governed them had no wish to share. " From a lofty Alpine summit look down upon this land, It lies there like a volume all written by God's hand. Know you what there is written ? O, see it beams so bright I Freedom stands there, ye princes ! can ye read the page aright? No chancellor engrossed it, it is no parchment chart, And the red that burns in the signet is the blood of a people's heart. Behold the mighty mountain, the Monk in the country tight, Around his brow the eagle sweeps in its heavenward flight ; His cowl is of rock, and the snow-crown becomes his temples well, His prayer-book the starry heavens, the universe his cell." When a monk appears, there surely can be no lack of preach- ing. In the thunder of the avalanche, in the cataract he is teaching; Freedom! that is his text-word; good sirs, you do not smile ; It is clear the monk is a heretic, he must go into durance vile." Freedom was really their text-word, though they were quite unconscious of thinking or acting poet- ically, when they rose on the occasion of the reduc- tion of the value of their copper coinage, which 310 Peasant Revolts. made their batzen, the only species of money with which they had much to do, worth just half as much as heretofore. Opposition began among the Eiitli- buchers of Lucerne, a tall and sturdy race, that lived in the long, fertile valley 011 the banks of the Emmen. They began with a mild remonstrance, and a request that they might be allowed to pay their taxes in batzen taken at the old valuation, or else in the form of grain, milk and cheese. The Lu- cerne government refused to jdeld to these, or any other propositions from the Entlibuchers, and sent the avoyer with some council lords to quiet them. This deputation was met by the peasants armed with spears and clubs, marching to the sound of the Alpine horns, while in front of them walked three men, dressed in the ancient Swiss costume, to represent the men of the Riitli. Their spirit was soon quenched, however, by the threats of Zurich and Berne; but though they yielded for the moment, their example had spread, and there were popular risings, excited in the large canton of Berne by the same causes, which were not so easil}~ checked. There was a second revolt in Lucerne, which was intended to be noth- ing less than a league of all the lower classes throughout the ten canton&. The peasants of Lu- A Forlorn Hope. 311 cerne, Berne, Basel, Solothurn, and the territory of Aargau, all joined in this, and held an assembly at Sumiswald, in April 1653, where they chose Nicholas Leuenberger as their chief, and pro- claimed their purpose of making themselves free as the Small Cantons. To this union, unfortu- nately, they brought neither strength of purpose nor wisdom. Every one who proposed violent measures was popular for the moment, and they threatened and ill-treated whoever refused to join them. Meanwhile the cities were not idle. Zurich, the capital gave the order for the whole confederacy to arm, in May 1653. The struggle was short and decisive. For a few weeks Leuenberger's soldiers robbed and murdered where they could, and made feeble and futile attempts upon the small cities of Aargau. Towards the end of May he met, near Herzogenbuchsee, the Bernese troops, under their general, who bore the honored name of d'Erlach. A desperate fight ensued, but the insurgents were soon overpowered. They fought foot by foot to make good their retreat; they fought from the houses of the little town, and when driven from them, fought still behind the walls of the church, the handful which remained at last escaping to the 312 Peasant Revolts. the woods. This battle ended the insurrection. Leuenberger, betrayed in his own house by a neighbor and friend, was beheaded, and his head was nailed to the gallows beside the written league of the rebels. Others were punished by fines, im- prisonment, or death. Heavy fines were also exacted from the different rebelling cantons, and then the victors had time to quarrel about the ex- penses of the war. No sooner was this revolt of the peasants over, than the smouldering fires of religious hatred, zealously fanned by the clergy on both sides, broke out again. Neither side could trust the other. The Catholics reproached the Protestants for mak- ing extended fortifications about the cities, and alliances with Holland and England. The Prot- estants retorted that the Catholics were reviving the old Borromean league, reviving their treaties with the bishop of Basel, and with Savoy, and showing themselves entirely too friendly to the king of Spain. With both parties in this mood, the im- mediate cause of trouble soon appeared. Several families of Arth, in Schwyz, had been obliged by the Catholics to abjure their faith, or fly from their homes. They came to Zurich, beg- ging the council, " with prayers and tears," to BOATING OX THE LAKE OK BRIENZ. A Religious War. 315 intercede for them, that they might obtain the household goods they had been forced to leave behind them. The council interceded to such purpose, that the rulers of Schwyz announced themselves as accountable only to God, and pro- ceeded to confiscate the property of the fugitives, and to imprison, torture, and put to death such of their kindred as professed the same faith. Upon this a general war broke out. The Cath- olic cantons held the Albis and Rapperswyl, and occupied Bremgarten and Mellingen, while Zurich, with Schaffhausen, and her ally Miihlhausen, over- ran Thurgau. Berne first despatched troops to protect her own frontier, and then sent forty ban- ners to the help of Zurich. Unfortunately, there was so little discipline among the Bernese troops at this critical time, that they encamped in the country of Villmergen, without even ammunition for their cannon, and at the same time neglected sending out scouts to ascertain the position of the enemy. They trusted to the report of some gay, young noblemen of Berne, that they had ridden out for pleasure, and seen no signs of danger. At that very moment, four thousand Lucerners were hidden behind the wood on the height of Wohlen. As the Bernese troops marched through a sunken 316 Peasant Revolts. way, they were suddenly fired upon from the heights above. They made such resistance as they could, fired their pieces twice, and then, left with- out balls or powder, fled in great confusion. Fresh troops came up, only to be swept away in the general rout. While the battle was going on, a letter was put into the hands of Colonel Pyffer, commanding the Lucerne troops, which held out hopes of a peace, and forbade his intended attack. He had some suspicion of its contents, so left the seal unbroken, and went on in pursuit of. the flying Bernese. They lost about eight hundred men and eleven guns. At a little distance, among the vineyards, were stationed several more battalions of Berne, who saw the defeat of their comrades without stirring to help them, because they had no orders to move ! Soon afterwards a peace was concluded, where eveiything stood much as it had stood at the be- ginning of this war, which had lasted only nine weeks, and had cost immense sums of money. The Catholics were very much dissatisfied at the little which they had accomplished, and accused Colonel Zweier, chief of the Uri troops of an understand- ing with the enemy. This story rested on the authority of a monk of Einsiedeln, who declared Peace Broken. 317 that the Zurichers had bought off Zweier by a present of fourteen hundred ducats, which they had sent him enclosed in a capon. It is the first time that we hear of such an accusation against a Swiss soldier, and endless were the disputes and recriminations which followed. Towards the close of the century peace was again broken by the excitement consequent on the building by the king of France of a strong fortress near Basel. In Basel party feeling was intense. The executive council was accused of having been bribed by Louis XIV. to submission, and a stern inquiry into its proceedings followed. Members of the council and their wives, who were found to have influenced the elections, were imprisoned and fined, while many others lost their offices. The citizens took up arms, and it was no't until the confederates sent the never-failing mediators that the affair was finally settled. It was followed by the usual punishments, many citizens being sent to the galleys. This was at the time a favorite method of getting rid of vagabonds and prisoners, who received a sentence of more or less years, in proportion to their offences. A second insurrection, on a smaller scale than the peasants' revolt, to.ok place in St. Gall in the 318 Peasant Revolts. first years of the eighteenth century. The Swiss, free in the eyes of the outside world, were, as we have already seen, mere serfs in nearly all the cantons, and such was their' condition in the country of Toggenburg, the district whence the old courts derived their name, and which had been the nucleus of their widely-spread estates. The greater part of the rights over these estates had been sold to the abbot of St. Gall in 1468. In the year 1700, the abbey of St. Gall was presided over by Leodegar Burgisser, as sovereign lord. This abbot was a man of great ambition, who wished to make himself friends of mammon, of all kinds and qualities. With this in view, he had made an alliance with Glarus and Schwyz, and cleverly combined this with his rank as a titular prince of the German empire, so that, as occasion served, he might act against the em- peror as a free confederate, or against the confed- erates as a prince of the empire. Thus, as two gentlemen in one, he pursued his crooked path. He began by questioning all the commune rights of the Toggenburgers, and called the people his serfs, in order that they might become so used to the name as not to rebel against the hardness of the condition. VINTAGE FESTIVAL, VEVAY. Abbot Leodegar. 319 Even at the time when he became abbot, there was very little, either of right or privilege remain- ing to these poor people. The fishing and hunting were kept exclusively for the church dignitaries and their friends. The abbot's tribunal had been made the highest court of appeal, and all offices were filled by his creatures. All assemblies of the people were strictly forbidden, and the military power had passed, many years before, into the hands of the bishop. All these things the people had endured, but when, in 1701, Abbot Leodegar ordered them to build and keep open, at their own expense, a new road through the Hummelwald, crushed as they had been, they turned at last. They sent delegates to represent to him the griev- ousness of this new burden ; but he replied by fining them, and taking away the small remains of their civil rights. The oppressed people then carried their com- plaints to their two protecting cantons, Schwyz and Glarus. Both cantons were touched by their sufferings, and even the orthodox Schwyzers de- clared themselves friendly. " Even if the Toggen- burgers were Turks and heathen," they said, with perfect unconsciousness of their bull, "they are still our confederates and fellow-countrymen, and 320 Peasant Revolts. we will see justice done them." But later, when Zurich and Berne took the people's side, Schwyz renounced her fellow-countrymen, in dread that the reformed church would become permanently fixed in St. Gall. Great was the tempest that now proceeded from the Toggenburg teapot. The impe- rial envoy claimed that the German emperor alone could decide the affair, because Toggenburg had been the fief of his ancestors centuries before. On the other hand, the English, Dutch, and Prussian ambassadors encouraged Berne and Zurich in resis- tance to the emperor. The abbot, in his character of priestly counsellor, sowed dissensions between the Catholics and Evangelicals in Toggenburg, until feuds and murders became the order of the day. The people at last took up arms, and everywhere drove out the abbot's governors and soldiers, while the abbot concentrated them at every bridge and road in the other parts of St. Gall. The avoyer of Lucerne called upon the Catholic cantons to put down the rebels, and the avoyer of Berne called upon all Protestants to uphold them. Berne and Zurich contributed money and thousands of sol- diers to their cause, while the pope's nuncio con- tributed twenty-six thousand crowns from the Protestants take Wyl. 321 papal treasury towards the equipment of the Waldstatten and Zug ; and priests went about dis- tributing charms and consecrated bullets to the soldiers. In the midst of the disturbance the abbot sent his valuables to Linden for safe keep- ing, and retired himself to Rorschach, vainly calling for help upon the citizens of St. Gall, Appenzell, and Glarus. The Protestants besieged and took the city of Wyl, where the abbot's soldiers were so furious against their commandant Felber that they mur- dered him themselves immediately after the sur- render. The war was so popular among the Reformed that even women, and boys only twelve years old, marched in the landsturm to the attack of Wyl. After its capture, Zurich and Berne marched as conquerors through Thurgau as far as the city of St. Gallen. They garrisoned that place and Rorschach, also, whence the abbot had fled to Augsburg, carrying his beloved valuables with him. The Bernese next penetrated into Aargau, where they took the city of Wurelingen without a blow, and the city of Baden after a long resistance, in which the churches, houses, and the castle itself, were greatly damaged. The cause of the Toggenburgers and their allies was every- 322 Peasant Revolts. where successful, the Catholic troops attaining throughout the war only one small success over some Bernese troops near the bridge of Sins. They surrendered to five times their number and would all have been killed, had it not been for the commander of the Unterwalden troops, who forced his men to spare the lives of their disarmed ene- mies. The Protestants also practised great cru- elty throughout this war, to avenge that of the Catholics at its opening. The Contest was practically ended on the 25th of July, 1712, by a decisive victory by the Protes- tants on the battle-field of Villmergen, where they had been beaten by the Lucerne men fifty- six years before. The battle lasted four hours, and two thousand Catholics were slain, many of them while endeavoring to escape. During this battle, and, indeed, throughout the Toggenburger war, the Bernese soldiers had proved themselves the best in the confederacy, in point of equipment and discipline. In the month of August, a general peace was concluded at Aarau, to the great advantage of the conquerors. The five Catholic cantons were obliged to yield their rights over Baden and Rap- perswyl, and to associate Berne with themselves Burdensome Taxes. 323 in the sovereignty over Thurgau and the Rhein- feld. By this provision the two religions became equalized in those provinces. Abbot Leodegar, greatly humbled, but not sufficiently to accept the peace of Aarau, remained until the day of his death " an obstinate and self-exiled man." His successor, Abbot Joseph, wisely resigned himself to the unavoidable change. The Toggenburg- ers came once more under the jurisdiction of an abbot of St. Gall, but with improved rights and privileges, and under the powerful protection of Zurich and Berne. The Catholic cantons were long in recovering from the expenses of this war, which bore very heavily upon them. In the mountains a tax for these expenses met with great resistance, and it was only after infinite trouble that Lucerne and Schwyz succeeded in raising their share of the costs. CHAPTER XVI. SWISS DECADENCE. CONSPIRACY OF HENZI. [A. D. 1712 TO 1749.] DURING eighty-six years from the peace of Aarau, the Swiss were engaged in neither foreign nor civil war, and the disturbances which agitated the different cantons from time to time were confined to a limited stage. But real peace and union were as far off as ever. Religious differences, plots, intrigues, and revolts kept peo- ple of the same canton and village apart, until the building which their forefathers had raised in the early days of the republic, was gradually weakened and ready to fall, like a house of cards, at the first blow from France. During all these years there was no lack of fine words and allu- sions to former greatness, but the true glory seemed to have departed. Whether it was really dead, or only slept, was not to be known, until the day when the trumpet call announced the in- 324 A. Vanished Spirit. 325 vasion of the French. In the meantime, the three old cantons assembled yearly at the Riitli to com- memorate the meeting of their fathers there four hundred years before ; but they came thither with deep hatred for the large cities, and a bitter remem- brance of the day of Villmergen in their hearts. The Winkeirieds, Waldmanns, and Erlachs were dead, and their good swords rusted, while their descendants quarrelled about seats in the councils or pensions from foreign powers. Their spirit seemed to have forever vanished, and to be held in remembrance even, only by the yearly recital of their names, or by such rude monuments as the texts in the chapel at Trons, or the paintings on TelFs tower at Altorf. " What though the Italian pencil wrought not here, Nor such fine skill as did the meed bestow On Marathonian valor; yet the tear Springs forth in presence of this gaudy show." There was still to be found, throughout Switzer- land, a wise and patriotic minority, but its warn- ings and efforts were disregarded. The men who composed it urged that the confederate constitu- tion should be revised and strengthened ; Sarasin, of Geneva, suggested that a supreme federal au- thority should be established, in order to lessen 326 Swiss Decadence. the petty daily strife of the cantons. His wisdom met nothing but ridicule, and things were left to go on in the same old track. Thus the history of Switzerland for this period, is simply a record, more or less detailed, of disturbances in the differ- ent cantons. In Zurich and Schaffliauseii trifling disputes between different trades at last brought about the good result of a revival of their statutes, and an abolition of many abuses which had gradu- ally crept in. In Basel, John of lleinach, on becoming prince- bishop in 1705, made an unsuccessful attempt upon the liberties of his subjects. He began by refusing to accept their homage, except as an oath of allegiance, without reservation of their old rights. The little valley of Munsterthal stood out stoutly against him, and sent its banneret to Berne, to ask for help, on the ground of that city's ancient protectorate over it. The bishop's pretensions shrank and vanished at the appear- ance of a thousand Bernese on his frontier, and with war in his heart, he was obliged to confirm the Munsterthaler's rights, and to pledge his episcopal word that, in case of future complaints, he would answer the summons of Berne, or pay a sum of twenty thousand crowns. This was a bit- John of ReinacJi. 329 ter pill for the bishop, and Pope Clement was equally indignant; but by this time the Swiss were pretty well hardened against the wrath of popes. The bishop, who never knew when he was beaten, made another attempt in 1711 against Neustadt, on the Lake of Bienne ; where he broke up the city council, and outlawed the burgomaster. Again Berne interfered, and once more he reluc- tantly yielded. Twenty years later, his successor, another Reinach, sat in the bishop's chair, and tried to take away the rights of the people of Pruntrut. They rose against him in their own defence, and the bishop appealed to the Catholic cantons, who gave as their verdict, " If princely prerogatives are to be maintained, the franchises of the subjects must also be respected." The bishop refused to listen to this wise lesson, which many other princes have learned only in their downfall. He brought French troops into his ter- ritory in 1741, and punished his subjects with such rigor as to lay up for his bishopric a day of wrath in the next generation. Glarus was the scene of the next small war, between the government of the canton and a dis- trict called Werdenberg, which had been bought in 1517 from the barons of lieu wen, and was gov- 330 Swiss Decadence. erned by bailiffs, who were changed every three years. On some occasion of dispute the bailiff had got possession of their charter, and ever since they had vehemently demanded its restitution. It was in vain that the council presented them with another document, which they were assured would answer as well ; they would have nothing but their original paper. " A poor thing, but mine own," was the burden of their cry, and when they found that words were of no avail, they pro- ceeded to blows for the recovery of their lost treasure. On the 21st of October, 1721, they attacked the bailiff in the castle of Glarus, but he thundered against them with his heavy artillery, and they fled in dismay. They tried a second attack, and were driven back by the cantonal troops, who had entered the revolted district. The unarmed crowd of people fled over the Rhine, fancying for the moment that exile would be better than the loss of their rights. But it was bitter winter weather, and the sufferings of their women and children soon forced them back to ask for mercy. It is creditable to the people of Glarus to record that no one suffered death for this insurrection. The peaceful spirit of their patron saint, Hilarius, Strife in Zug. 333 must have softened the savage justice generally dealt out by the victorious Swiss ; and later, Glarus restored their arms and freedom to the Werdeubergers, a piece of generosity which they never found reason to repent. When Glarus became peaceful again, it was the turn of Zug to break out in party strife. This little city, built on the shores of a beautiful mountain lake, has twice lost many of its pretty houses and gardens by the giving way of the soft banks on which they stood. No other town in Switzerland has so kept all the characteristics of the middle ages, in its appearance and customs. Its towers, walls, and gateways remain as they were built at first, unchanged by men, and very little changed by time. It is more like a picture by Albrecht Diirer, than any other town .except Nuremburg. Conservative still, as in the early days, when it was reluctantly driven by the neg- lect of Austria into the arms of the confederacy, it keeps up every old form, whether bad or good, in its churches and law-courts. It is only within the last few years, that the use of torture to extract the truth from prisoners has been abol- ished. This privilege was not given up willingly by Zug, but taken away forcibly by the general 334 Swiss Decadence. government, and the instruments of suffering still shown in the Kaibenthurm to strangers are not merely relics of a remote and barbarous past, but realities of a very recent day. The canton is made up of the city, and the communes of Menzingen, Baer, and Aegeri, the last village being the place whence Leopold led his troops to their destruction at Morgarten. These communes had their own laws, and were always quarrelling with the city, until, in 1702, they pro- posed separating from it, and setting up a canton of their own. This demand the confederates re- fused, possibly thinking that a state of such microscopic dimensions would scarcely thrive, even in Switzerland. Their divisions at this period, 1714, were between the Harten hards who were active partizans of Austria, and the Linden, or softs, who were devoted to France. This strife lasted twenty years. First the Harten were triumphant, and whoever dared to blame them, or to pity the banished Linden, was com- pelled to stand in the pillory, or sometimes to un- dergo the further obloquy of wearing a red knit cap for a year. Next the Linden ruled for a while, and the Harten, with their old ammann Schumacher at their head, suffered in their turn. An Appenzell War. 335 Schumacher was condemned to the Sardinian gal- leys, and died only seven weeks after his exile began. His death did not put an end to the per- petual dissensions, which continued on the subject of the salt trade, the question in dispute being whether a monopoly in Burgundian salt should still be allowed, or whether salt should be imported also from the Tyrol. After many years of trouble, the Burgundian salt won the day, and from that time reigned exclusively in the cookery of Zug. In 1732, the Outer Rhodes of Appenzell had a little private war of their own. They began by disputes about their choice of magistrates, and as to whether Trogen on the east of the river Sitter, or Herisau on the west, should be the capital. There is a tradition of the origin of Appenzell that the devil was once flying over the top of the Saiitis with a sackful of houses, and that he tore a hole in the sack and so dropped the houses down in their present confusion. It is to be feared that he dropped a contentious temper at the same time, which made it impossible for the inhabitants to live peacefully together. They hit upon the expedient of having two chief places, and letting Trogen and Herisau each choose magistrates for themselves, and after this 336 Swiss .Decadence. arrangement the two places were more jealous of each other than ever. Each town boasted of one, and only one influential family. At Trogen the Zellwegers were rich and powerful, at Herisau the Welters flourished. Disputes soon broke out con- cerning the tolls to be paid to St. Gall, the neigh- bor that was always ready to meddle in their affairs. The Zellwegers who wished to pay the tolls according to the treaty made after the Tog- genburg war, were contemptuously called Linden by their adversaries of Herisau, who declared that the deputies of Appenzell who had signed that treaty were traitors, for whose engagements they would never be responsible. On a day, when the heads of all the Outer Rhodes were assembled at Herisau, the Harten rushed into the council room, and dragged the Zellwegers to the window, with the purpose of throwing them out to the mob below. The Zell- wegers, not disposed for martydom, renounced their opinions from the ledges of the windows, but resumed them again at the first convenient opportunity. Both parties appealed to the Re- formed cantons, then sitting in diet at Frauen- feld, but they were undecided and accomplished nothing. The mass of the Harten rushed into The Softs and Hards. 339 Herisau, and insisted that the confederate medi- ators should require the Linden to submit. The mediators found themselves in the unpleasant po- sition of being forced to act against those who wished to observe the treaty which their cantons had made. But they were afraid to oppose the energetic Harten, and at last gave it as their deci- sion that the law-abiding Linden should yield to the majority. The softs stoutly resisted, and both parties came to blows in the little town of Gaiss, noted at this day for its beautiful scenery and its whey- cure for invalids. There they fought in a primi- tive way, with sticks and clubs, and the Harten gained the day, plundering the barns and cellars of the Linden. The next day they appeared against each other again, with improved weapons in the shape of guns and swords, but this time the government of Appenzell interfered, and suc- ceeded in restoring quiet. The softs were now convinced that their cause was hopeless, and a general assembly at Hundwyl pronounced against them, and against the tolls due to St. Gall ; after which the matter was ended by the vanquished leaders paying heavy fines. The prosperous city of Berne was now shaken 340 Swiss Decadence. to its foundation by the conspiracy of Henzi, which all but succeeded in overturning the govern- ment, and destroying many of the noble families of the town. The sovereign power of the city had been granted by its founder, Duke Berchthold, to the mass of the citizens, who naturally chose their magistrates from the families of the nobles. These families gradually became masters of the great council, while the commons assembled more and more rarely, and at last never met at all. In 1531, the first law was passed without the burgh- ers sanction, and 1536, when war was to be de- clared against the duke of Savoy, they came together for the last time. The ancient grant of Duke Berchthold, and the law which vested the power in the burghers, slumbered peacefully in their golden chests, with the great city seal beside them, but the law was a dead letter, and the seal was affixed to acts, submission to which was all that concerned the commons. From time to time, murmurs, both loud and deep, were heard by the usurping lords, but these murmurs were speedily silenced behind prison walls, or beyond the frontier of the canton. At last Captain Samuel Henzi raised a voice in 1744, to which the unwilling lords were forced to Insurrection of Henzi. 341 hearken. Henzi was a man of uncommon ac- quirements, and of a temper which led him to join in a petition by twenty-four men against the favor- itism in the choice of the council. By way of re- sponse he was banished from his canton, and spent some time at Neuchatel, returning to Berne upon receiving pardon, to find himself a ruined man, and excluded from all employment that might repair his broken fortunes. He soon became the soul of a band of conspira- tors, who met secretly at night, and had for Its object the restoration of the city politics to their old order. They had at first no thought of re- sorting to violence, but violent spirits were ad- mitted, who declared that the sword, and not the pen was the weapon with which to recover their liberties. They carried others with them, and it was agreed that on the 13th of June, 1749, the arsenal was to be taken by storm, the old council broken up by force, and liberty proclaimed. Henzi and some of his friends were shocked at this decision, and he made up his mind to leave his native city at once and forever. At that moment one of the conspirators becamed fright- ened, and revealed the whole plot to the council. Henzi was seized and cast into prison. Two of 342 Swiss Decadence. his companions, Fueter and Wernier were arrested also, while others fled, and soon afterwards heard with horror that these two had confessed, under dread of torture, that they had intended to pil- lage and burn the city, and to massacre the peace- ful inhabitants. These things were easily believed in the excitement of the moment. All three pris- oners were condemned to death. The two lieu- tenants begged hard for their lives, but Henzi himself asked for no mercy. A disgraced life had no charms for him. On the 16th of June, he said good-by to his wife and children, saw the heads of his companions fall, and then calmly presented himself for the death-stroke. The other conspirators were banished with their families. As Henzi's widow stood with her two boys on the banks of the Rhine, and looked back on the country she was leaving, she said bitterly, " Did I not know that these children would one day avenge the blood of their slaughtered father, I would gladly see them swallowed by these waves." But the sons did not think of vengeance. One of them, on the contrary, who rose to a high position under the stadtholder of the Netherlands, had always a helping hand for the Bernese whose business brought them in his way. But Henzi The Jungfrau. 343 did not die altogether in vain. The discussions which followed opened the eyes of the council to the abuses which some members worked honestly to reform, and some of the most glaring faults of the old government were amended. Peace reigned for a time in the city, and in the Oberland beyond, which is watched over by the unapproachable beauty of the Jungfrau. " Over her, arched to a cupola, behold the blue air streams, The row of pointed glaciers a cathedral organ seems; With a maid and an organ together, one cannot well be wrong In listening with all assurance for music and for song. Hear how her song magnificent thrills in the beating heart, Freedom ! freedom ! she sings so that all our pulses start, By heavens! with such a harmony never sang daughters of earth. And they who join, in the chorus are surely of heavenly birth.". CHAPTER XVII. INTERNAL TROUBLES. GIBBON, VOLTAIRE, AND ROUSSEAU. [A. D. 1750 TO 1789.] A REBELLION in the Leventina, in 1750 brought the weight of the whole confed- eracy upon the small valley which Uri had ruled for centuries with a heavy hand. The district of the Leventina extended for eleven leagues from the snowy heights of the great St. Gothard, " mountains named of God himself from dread preeminence" to the wild torrent of the Abiasca. Its people had passed from the rule of the Italian Visconti to that of Uri, paying that canton a small yearly tax, and also a toll for all travellers on the St. Gothard road, which passed through their valley. There the " Four rivers rush down from on high, Their spring will be hidden forever; Their course is to all the four points of the sky, To each point of the sky is a river; And fast as they start from their old mother's feet, They dash forth, and no more will they meet. 344 Lvventina. 345 Two pinnacles rise to the depths of the blue; Aloft on their white summits glancing, Bedecked in their garments of golden dew, The clouds of the sky are dancing There, threading alone their lightsome maze, Uplifted apart from all mortal's gaze. And high on her ever-enduring throne The queen of the mountains reposes ; Her head serene and azure and lone, A diamond crown encloses ; The sun with his darts shoots round it keen and hot, He gilds it always, he warms it not." The people of the Leventina are poor enough in the midst of this magnificient beauty. To this day, the more energetic of the men leave home to seek improvement of their miserable lot, while the women either follow them, or gain a wretched livelihood by weaving at home. Yet, poor as they were, they had memories in common with Switzerland of which they might well have been proud. On " the glorious day of Giornico," when the Waldstatten had beaten Milan against tre- mendous odds, the men of Leventina had fought with them, and distinguished themselves as much as the Swiss. Their captain, Staussa, had fought on, after he was .mortally wounded, and reached home to fall dead on his own threshold. 346 Internal Troubles. Still, Uri had always used the language of lofty superiority in her dealings with the subject valley. The people of Leventina were obliged Jo address the men of Uri as " Most illustrious and mighty lords, and our most merciful masters," and could only speak of themselves as " most humble and faithful servants and subjects." So Uri was not at all prepared to yield to the insurrection, which broke out under the influence of some few promi- nent and discontented men, who saw a chance of pushing their own fortunes in throwing off Swiss supremacy. The people, deluded by them with the pleasing thought of collecting their tolls for themselves alone, began the struggle with a very faint idea of what they were undertaking. With- out any effort for the peaceful redress of their wrongs, real or imaginary, two thousand men took up arms in a short time. The horn of Uri was sounded immediately, and Uri herself, with almost all the other confederates, took the field. The Uri men dragged their can- non, in spite of wind and rain, up the rocky paths of the St. Gothard, and to the horror of the reb- els, appeared above the sources of the Ticino. The chiefs of the insurrection, Ujs, the captain of Leventina ; Sartori, a member of council, and * .f-a f LUKMAXIER ROAD. VAL MEDELS. Leventina. 349 Furno, the banneret of the valle3 r , made their sim- ple plan for the destruction of the invaders. It was, to draw them on to a place a little above Faido, where the Ticiuo rushes furiously through a narrow cleft in the Platifer mountain, and where a handful of men could hold them in check, while from all the recesses of the valley the people of Leventina should rush forth from their hiding places, to surround and annihilate their enemies. But the Swiss failed to proceed according to the calculations of Urs and his associates. The troops of Uri stopped in the valley of Urseren, while the Lucerners crossed the mountains, and descended into the valley of Ronca, and the other confeder- ates occupied all the borders of the valley. The people of Leventina found themselves completely caught in a trap, and at the moment that they realized this, the battalions of Uri and Unterwal- den began their descent from the St. Gothard, on .May 21st, 1755. Terror seized the hearts of the rebels, as they saw the whole confederation arrayed against them. They did not wait for a battle, but fled iu despair, to their villages and forests. They were pursued by Uri and Unterwalden, step by step, cautiously but surely ; their leaders were seized one after another, and Urs himself was tit 350 Internal Troubles. last dragged from the Capuchin convent where lie had taken refuge. Then a solemn assembly of the people of the valley was called. On the 2d of June, under the beautiful chestnut trees which still remain at Faido, three thousand men, from the different dis- tricts, came together to hear their doom. A circle of armed confederates was formed, and, kneeling bareheaded within the circle, the three thousand took an oath of unconditional obedience to Uri. Then they were forced to witness, still kneeling, the terrible sight of the execution of their three leaders. After this the miserable people returned to their wretched homes, and on the next day the avenging army took its way back over the St. Gothard. In front of their column marched eight men in chains, who were thought to be more guilty than the rest, and who were therefore re- served for execution in Uri. The army had done its work thoroughly, and Leventina was thence- forth silent if not contented. At this time Lucerne, also, was constantly op- pressed by the disorders that grew out of the cor- ruption which had gradually eaten into the heart of the city government ; and the end of the eigh- teenth century brought also an attempted revoiu- Peter Chenaur. 351 tion in Freiburg. In that city there had been a great departure in the mode of government from the regulations made by its founder, Duke Bercht- hold. It had been decreed that all important matters should be decided upon by the whole peo- ple, but now, between all the different councils, the great and little ones, and the additional coun- cil of sixty, which was made up of certain families known as the secret families, the power of the burghers became beautifully less. In 1784, it was in effect abolished by the law that excluded all other burghers from entering the number of the secret families, whose power became almost abso- lute. The Freiburg people soon felt the bad effects of this despotism. Men, who cared noth- ing for their form of government, sighed for the good old times, when the city boasted two thou- sand tanners in one of its quarters alone, and when more than twenty thousand pieces of white cloth were sold to Venice every year. Peter Chenaur, a gentleman living on his own estate, resolved to make an effort to obtain a change. The right of petition still remained, but a solitary petition would be of no use. He went to the city, May 3, 1781, escorted by sixty armed men, to lay the complaints of the canton before the 352 Internal Troubles. council lords. The council not only refused to re- ceive the petition, but closed the town-gates against him,- and armed the citizens. The people, on the other hand, rang the alarm-bell in every village, and clamored for justice. Chenaur's plans grew quickly ; he organized the miserably-armed peas- ants into battalions, and marched against Freiburg with twenty-five hundred men. The city was greatly alarmed, but, in this emergency, her old ally Berne was still true to her. Three hun- dred Bernese dragoons, under Colonel Froideville, marched against the insurgents, and required them to lay down their arms, promising a fair hearing of their complaints. While he parleyed with them, Freiburg's army arrived with heavy artillery, and the people were obliged to yield or fly. Chenaur was murdered by one of his own men as he tried to escape, and his head exposed on the Romont gate tower. Then Freiburg began to consider the people's com- plaints, with the help of mediators from three can- tons. For weeks this slow process dragged on, but the end was certain. It was in vain that the old charters bore witness against the aristocratic usurpation, the government and the mediators found no difficulty in coming to the conclusion Creneva in Ferment. 355 that the burghers' pretentions were groundless. This sentence was proclaimed from the pulpits of all the churches, on the 28th of July, 1782, and the same evening the four banners of the city went in procession to the avoyer's house, where three of the leading citizens spoke in defence of their co-burghers. The avoyer listened with calm politeness, but within a few days the three citizens found themselves banished from the city. In spite of this, the unreasonable people still sighed for their lost rights, but their only way of showing this feeling was by visits to the grave of Chenaur, whither praying multitudes resorted with hymns, crosses, and banners. It was in vain that the bishop thundered against these pilgrimages ; the people still kept their grateful remembrance of the dead. Geneva, also, was in a state of ferment for the lust forty years before the French revolution. The city was still under the strong influence, which, proceeding from the soul of Calvin, remains there in a modified degree to our own day. But the spirit of political discontent, which prevailed throughout Europe, was working powerfully in Geneva also. The grasping spirit of the patri- cian families, had led to repeated tumults. In 356 Internal Troubles. 1707, the citizens complained of the arbitrary government of these families, and of the want of all power of interference by the commons. At this complaint the city called upon its Swiss allies, and the defenders of the people's right were either banished or put to death. The government grew bolder, and proceeded to increase the taxes, for the purpose of strengthening the fortifications of the city, a most unpopular measure, because it was to be followed by the establishment of a large permanent force as garrison. Endless strug- gles followed, in which neither party obtained much success, and their quarrels were most unfor- tunate, because they ended in constant appeals to outside mediators. In 1738, Zurich, Berne, and a special agent from their dangerous neighbor, France, proposed a regle- ment, or constitution, which it was hoped would settle the affairs of the city, dividing the power as it did between no less than four councils, which were supposed to act as checks upon each other. The largest council of sixteen hundred citizens was to have the power of veto upon new laws and grants of money. Tranquillity was short-lived; in 1768, there was a fresh revolution and a fresh compromise ; and in 1782, the people rose against Mirabeau. 357 their magistrates in a furious revolution, in which several innocent people perished. This action brought the mediators again into the field, and this time with an armed force behind them. Berne, Savoy, and France joined in besieging Geneva, the French battalions being directed against the town, from Voltaire's country seat, Les Devices ; and the patriots of Geneva, having announced their firm resolution to perish in the ruins of their city, quietly surrendered, after a very mild defence. The conquerors acted mercifully, simply banishing twenty-one of the leaders of the mob. The troubles of Geneva attracted great at- tention among foreigners. Mirabeau, who had already ranged himself on the liberal side, raised his voice against any attempt on the part of France to force a constitution on Geneva. " An ant-hill, crushed by an elephant's foot," he wrote, "can never be at rest." His protest had no effect, and a new constitution was given to the Genevese. The press was put under legal supervision ; politi- cal meetings and clubs were forbidden ; the militia was disarmed, and the regular garrison doubled, and commanded by foreigners. Such was the con- dition of Geneva at the beginning of the memor- able year 1789. 358 Internal Troubles. During the period of which we have just writ- ten, three names, great in the literary world, will always be associated with Switzerland in the minds of French and English readers. Voltaire, Rousseau, and Gibbon lived and wrote near the Lake of Geneva, during the short calm before the French revolution. " Leinan! these names are worthy of thy shore, Thy shore of names like these ; Avert thou no more, Their memory thy remembrance would recall." Gibbon was first sent to Lausanne by his father, to lodge with a Swiss pastor, and to be recon- verted to the Protestantism which he had just abjured. He returned to his early faith, but ex- ceeded his instructions by falling in love with Mademoiselle Curchod. This marriage was looked upon by his father as a mesalliance, and Gibbon, who " sighed as a lover, but obeyed as a son," left Switzerland for the time. Mademoiselle Curchod fulfilled her destiny in becoming the wife of Necker, and the mother of Madame de Stael, and Gibbon returned to Lausanne, many } 7 ears after- wards, to make it famous as the place where his great history was finished. There, on the summer night when the last word was written, he tells us Rousseau and Voltaire. 359 how he walked in his garden, and, with his satis- faction, felt a pang at the thought that he had taken leave of the work which had been for more than twenty years a part of his life. He there " exhausting thought, And hiving wisdom with each studious year, In meditation dwelt, with learning wrought, And shaped his weapon with an edge severe, Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer." Rousseau was born in Geneva, and after leav- ing it, when a boy, for his roving life in Savoy and France, returned to his native place and to Calvin- ism, in 1756. Voltaire was already established at Les Devices, and a great friendship sprang up between the two authors, which was not destined to be a lasting one. Voltaire liked Rousseau, but could not resist the temptation to ridicule his eccentricities and his writings, and Rousseau was consumed by jealousy of Voltaire. This jealousy led him to remove to the valley of Montmorency, where he laid the scene of the " Nouvelle Hdloise." In the exquisite style which transmuted all that it touched, he described the little village of Meil- lerie, where St. Preux wrote his love-letters, and strained his eyes with gazing across the water at his Julie's home, at Clarens. 360 Rousseau and Voltaire. " Clarens! sweet Clarens! birth-place of deep love! Thine air is the young breath of passionate thought; Thy trees take root in love ; the snows above The very glaciers have his colors caught, And sunset into rose-hues sees them wrought By rays which sleep there lovingly." There, too, Rousseau wrote the " Emile " and the " Contrat Social," which raised a storm he was unable to meet. Paris condemned Emile to be burned, and in Geneva both books were torn by the hangman. Public opinion was so strong against him that he finally left the neighborhood of Geneva, and after living for a time on an island in the Lake of Brienz, gave up Switzerland forever. " Here the self-torturing sophist, wild Rousseau, The apostle of affection ; he who threw Enchantment o'er passion, and from woe Wrung overwhelming eloquence, first drew The breath that made him wretched : yet he knew How to make madness beautiful, and cast O'er erring deeds and thoughts a heavenly hue Of words, like sunbeams, dazzling as they past The eyes, which o'er them shed tears feelingly and fast." Voltaire left the neighborhood of Geneva, in 1762, to establish himself at Ferney, just across the French frontier, so that he might escape to either Voltaire and Fernet/. 363 country in case of war. While he lived there and received the homage of the travellers who were brought by curiosity or admiration to the philoso- pher's abode, he undertook the most disinterested work of his life. In conjunction with the Due de Choiseul, he helped in founding the colon}' of Versoix, for the Genevese, who were known as " natifs." They were the children of foreign settlers in Geneva, who were treated as strangers in the city of their birth, and subjected to all manner of annoying restrictions QU their industry. To the day of his death he tried to protect these peo- ple in every way that he could, and the truest gratitude that he received was from them. To them he was simply the friend who would make any sacrifice for them ; they had no thought of him as he appeared to others : " A child Most mutable in wishes, but in mind A wit as various, gay, grave, sage, or wild, Historian, bard, philosopher combined ; He multiplied himself among mankind, The Proteus of their talents; but his own Breathed most in ridicule, which, as the wind, Blew where it listed, laying all things prone, Now to o'erthrow a fool, and now to shake a throne." CHAPTER XVIII. RISING OF THE STORM FROM FRANCE. [A. D. 1789 TO 1798.] IN 1789 the great storm was rising in France before which thrones shook and fell, and old orders were driven like dust before the wind. The revolutionary spirit spread so rapidly that it had soon reached even Switzerland and her allies. Some of the French troops, who had besieged Geneva in 1782, had lately returned from fighting for American independence under Lafayette and Rochambeau, and, after the occupation of the city, were very active in communicating the new ideas of the rights of man. As early as January, 1789, the people rebelled on the occasion of the magistrates raising the price of bread. The citi- zens armed, filling their fire-engines with boiling water, and soon frightened the government into removing their heaviest taxes, and restoring their right to wear arms. 364 Convulsions in France and Geneva. 365 Then the villages which were subject to Geneva tried to obtain the same privileges, a thing which the enfranchised citizens looked upon with horror, their conception of equal rights not descending one step below themselves. The peasants, on the contrary, thought equal rights should mean equal possessions, and were very anxious to begin the work of plundering the rich. Meantime every fresh convulsion in France produced a correspond- ing movement at Geneva. In 1790, when Paris took the oath of federation, Geneva broke out into a riot. The people spent the day in drunken festivity in the French villages of the neighbor- hood, and returned at night with their hats adorned with tri-colored cockades, threatening and insult- ing all the peaceable citizens they met. Two years later, when the French army ap- proached Geneva on its way to the conquest of Italy, the city was very much alarmed, arid called upon Berne and Zurich for assistance, which was quickly sent. But no sooner was the French army withdrawn, and the allied troops recalled, than the peasants and lower classes of citizens effected a revolution. They seized the arsenal, deposed the councils, ruled after the most approved French fashion, by a national convention and com- 366 Rising of the Storm from France. mittee of public safety, and went into all manner of excesses. In July, 1794, on the anniversary of the taking of the Bastile, a scene was enacted at Geneva, which recalls vividly the days of the old and new reign of terror at Paris. The revo- lutionary tribunal had condemned to death seven men, whose only crime was that they were among the most distinguished citizens of the time. Three hundred men under arms were compelled to witness the deed, which almost all of them ab- horred, but only one among them dared to call upon his companions to rescue these innocent men, and he was threatened with death, and only escaped with difficulty. The platoon fired upon the vic- tims, and then all the mass of the people, judges, executioners, and militia, as if overcome with hor- ror, dispersed in silence to their homes. But the man who had tried to save them from their guilt could not rest. An uneasy impulse led him back to the place, and there in the silence of the moon- light night, broken only by his own footsteps, he looked upon the men who lay as they had fallen, their quiet faces bearing witness against one of the crimes done in the name of a false liberty. The canton of Basel, also bordering upon France, was one of the first to feel the influence A Shortlived Republic. 367 J the revolution in Paris. The prince-bishop of the time, Joseph of Roggenbach, was possessed by the mixture of obstinacy and folly which seems to have belonged, ex-officio, to the episcopal authority there. Walking in the steps of John of Reinach, he chose this critical time to try to restrain the lawful assemblies of the peasants, and when they resisted, called in a garrison of Austrians. A year later, in April, 1792, after war had been de- clared between France and Austria, some French troops immediately entered the bishopric, and drove the Austrians out. The bishop fled, to the great joy of all his subjects. Those of his enemies, whom he had banished returned at once, and the next autumn, Basel publicly cast off the bishop's rule. They planted, at Pruntrut, the tree of liberty, a high pole, crowned by a red cap ; declared their state an independent republic, and christened it Rauracia, in remembrance of the old Roman colony. The new republic lived only three months, and in March, 1793, the people transferred themselves to France, Erguel and the valiant Munsterthal alone refusing to become French, and remaining with their old ally Berne. The confederate cantons looked on silently at these proceedings. This act of dismemberment 368 Rising of the Storm from France. was terrible to them, but the days when they had forced Zurich back into the old bund were passed, and a dread of France had fallen upon them. Every canton, too, feared rebellion on the part of its own subjects. It was Basel's turn to-day ; it might be their own to-morrow. Berne's hands in particular, were tied. That city had received the French refugees with generous hospitality, and the government of Paris regarded the canton with suspicious eyes. Discretion was evidently the better part in all that concerned Basel, and when the deposed bishop appeared before the Diet at Frauenfeld, to ask for help, he was dismissed with polite speeches, which were intended to console him for the loss of his dominions. But a day soon came, when it was hard for the cantons to keep this prudent silence. The Swiss regiments in French pay, eleven in number, had remained true to their loyalty, when insubordination had affected almost every company of France. Swiss soldiers of the regiment of Chateauvieux, had heard with disgust that their former comrades, who had been sent to the galleys for robbery, were now pardoned, and brought to the national assembly, to receive the honors due to the victims of tyranny. Such loyalty as theirs CHAMOIS. Gruns stronger than Thrones. 371 could not hope for safety in these stormy times. The regiment of Ernest was disarmed and plun- dered at Aix, and on the 10th of August, 1792, almost every one of the Swiss life-guards was killed by the mob which attacked the Tuileries. Defending their posts, with no thought of surren- der, seven hundred officers and soldiers were mur- dered, and lay for two days where they had fallen, in the gardens of the palace, and the streets near by. Their guns were " stronger than thrones." Their deeds on that daj r raised the Swiss from the mire of petty strife, through which they had dragged their later years, to the level of the ancient courage of their fatherland, and their death nerved the hearts and hands of the men who later fought at Unterwalden and the Frauholz. Their names are the rich possession of the confed- eracy, and, with those of their companions who perished in the prison massacre of September, are inscribed by their country underneath the monu- ment which stands beneath the shade of the forest trees, below the heights of Wesemlin. " When maddened France shook her king's palace floor, Nobly, heroic Swiss, ye met your doom ! Unflinching martyr to the oath he swore, Each steadfast soldier faced a' certain tomb. 872 Rising of the Storm from France, Not for your own, but others' claims ye died : The steep, hard path of fealty called to tread, Threatened or soothed, ye never turned aside, But held right on, where fatal duty led ! Reverent we stand beside the sculptured rock, Your cenotaph, Helvetia's grateful stone; And mark in wonderment the breathing block, Thorwaldsen's glorious trophy in your own. Yon dying lion is your monument! Type of majestic suffering, the brave brute, Human almost, in mighty languishment Lies wounded, not subdued; and, proudly mute, Seems as for some great cause resigned to die ; And, hardly less than heroes' parting breath, Speaks to the spirit, through the admiring eye, Of courage, faith, and honorable death." The other Swiss regiments forfeited the pay due them, and returned sadly home, to take part later in the coming struggle with France. Yet the con- federacy was still silent, and the cantons fondly dreamed that they could shut their ears to the crash of wars and revolutions, and keep their neu- trality intact. Very quietly and timidly they tried singly to make their own safety sure, but no one urged the necessity for preparing, as a whole, to meet the shock. Protestant Berne alone united with Catholic Freiburg and Solothurn for mutual Taxes, but no Representation. 373 defence, and that was more against the danger which they saw in the dissatisfaction of their own subjects. At Berne, especially, though the taxes were small throughout the canton, the government was very unpopular. The British minister to that city had remarked upon that fact as far back as 1714, and said that " no mildness in the govern- ment could make the subjects amends for the hardship of having no share in it." But if the people of the canton itself were dis- satisfied, the discontent was infinitely deeper in the subject provinces, and especially in the Pays de Vaud. An essay, which Gibbon had written when he lived there in his youth, set forth in the strongest terms the evil of the heavy taxes, and this evil was greatly increased by petty restrictions and vexations. It was said that the privilege, which the Bernese reserved to themselves, of shooting snipe in their subjects' vineyards, had converted many of the Vaudois to the principles of the revolution. If Berne could have realized in time what was necessary for her peace, if she could have herself emancipated Vaud, and, with Zurich, given a liberal constitution to the common bailiwicks, she might have reaped her reward in continued safety. 374 Rising of the Storm from France. But the government steadily refused to lessen the taxes, or renew old rights. Riots followed. Seditious pamphlets were circulated among the people, and at Vevay, Kolle, and Lausanne, the fiery youth of Vaud met in noisy assemblies, and drank to the success of liberal France. Berne resolved to stop this in the beginning. She sent an armed force into the Pays de Vaud, and in the punishments that followed, the innocent suffered with the guilty. Many of the people were ban- ished or fled, and from their places of safety wrote pamphlets designed to stir up the country to throw off altogether the yoke of Berne. Troublous times were also in store for Zurich, chief among the cities of Switzerland, in art and learning. The restraints of the trade guilds, and the monopoly of the commerce of the canton by Zurich itself, gave rise to murmurs, which grew louder as the neighboring countries set the example of rebellion. The Zurich people felt that the name of free Swiss was a mockery for them, and Stafa, a little village on the lake, took the initiative in demanding free trade and other privi- leges which would destroy the existing order of things. Their memorial was sent from commune to commune, until Zurich heard of it, and proceeded " Old Parchments ! " 377 against the leaders of the movement. It was in vain that they protested ; in vain that they searched for and brought to light the old charters which guaranteed all they asked. Zurich declared their old parchments null and void. With a casuistry worthy of the Jesuits, whom the city detested, she declared that the one charter had been granted merely to avoid greater evils, and that the other was only intended for peculiar times. Stafa, the source of the petition, was occupied by a military force, disarmed, and heavily fined. The treasurer of the place, Bodmer, who had been foremost in searching for the old charters, was led to the scaffold, and the sword of the execu- tioner was brandished over his head, to show that he deserved death. Then he was led back to prison, where he remained until he was released at the approach of the French army, in 1798. In St. Gall alone a ruler appeared who under- stood the duties of his office in times like these. Abbot Beda of Anghern, superior to his class and age, listened to the complaints of his people against the convent rule, by which the monastery daily grew richer, and the people daily poorer in proportion. Himself the son of a poor man in Thurgau, he, on becoming prince abbot, still re- 378 Rising of the Storm from France. membered the experience of his youth, and wished to do his subjects justice. Not one of his brother ecclesiastics of the abbey agreed with him. Their one thought was to trample out what they called the French freedom-madness, and Beda, in despair of obtaining what he thought right, was about to lay down his office. This the pope forbade, and Beda finally chose a braver and wiser course. He told his monks that this was no time, when danger and misery were threatening from without, for rulers and their people to be at variance, and he took his own way in the matter, without their consent or help. Henceforth servitude was abol- ished in St. Gall, and priests and soldiers were obliged to pay their share of the taxes. The peo- ple were given a share in the government, with the right of choosing their own land and war councils, of holding assemblies, and nominating their mu- nicipal officers. The abbot and the people swore to support these reforms, and the monks were obliged to take the same oath. In that very hour, how- ever, they signed a secret protest against their own action, in order that they might be able to disavow it with a good conscience, whenever they should have the opportunity. This happened in January, 1796, and in August of the next year, Danger Approaching. 379 the confederate cantons, protectors of the abbey, ratified these proceedings, simply because they could not avoid it. The outward danger which was to overwhelm Switzerland, for a time, was now rapidly approach- ing. Swiss exiles were ready to take advantage of the French love of conquest to excite France to the invasion of their country, and there was lit- tle need of persuasion in that direction to France, or to the one man who was fast becoming her soul. In 1797, Bonaparte had beaten Austria and con- quered Italy, turning Lombardy into the new Cis- alpine republic. At the treaty of Campo Formio, no guarantee had been given to Switzerland, for Napoleon had already planned the work which he meant that country to perform. On the map of his conquests he had marked her as the mountain- fortress whence he could sweep down upon either side of the Alps, and he already saw in his imagi- nation the great Simplon road, the work which alone could have made him immortal. The Italian valleys that were subject to the Grisons and Uri saw their opportunity in this state of things. Valentina, Chiavenna, and Bormio asked Napoleon to allow them to enter the Cisal- pine Republic. Napoleon gave the Grisons the 380 Rising of the Storm from France. choice of making them citizens with equal rights, or of letting them go, and when the Orisons re- fused to do either, he united the valleys to Lom- bardy, and confiscated the property of the Grisons families living in that country. This was accom- plished in October, 1797, and a few weeks later, the small portion of Basel which had remained Swiss was united to France. Aargau and Thur- gau vigorously demanded their rights from Berne, while peasants met everywhere, to help themselves against their rulers. In the Rheinthal and in Toggenburg, in Wesen and Schaffhausen, they came together for this purpose alone ; while on the other side of the Alps the Italian bailiwicks planted a tree of liberty on the banks of the Ticino. All was confusion and terror. The diet which met at Aarau renewed the old oath, but with none of the confidence of the first meeting on the Riitli. Just as they had taken it, a messen- ger from Basel entered the hall, with the news that six hundred armed men from the country were in their city, that the castles were in flames, and fear reigning everywhere. The diet broke up in terror and confusion. The news was too true, and, in addition, the French troops were at that very moment advancing to their frontier. ST. A.VXA, AT BOU8CHACH. CHAPTER XIX. FRENCH INVASION. THE ACT OF MEDIATION. [A. D. 1798 TO 1803.] THE French army, under Generals Brune and Schauenberg, entered the Swiss territory, and their advance was at once a signal for all the discontent of the country to break out into flame. Vaud took the initiative, by throwing off her alle- giance to Berne and accepting French protection. The cantonal governments at last awoke to the necessity for reform, and began the work in abject haste. Berne received into her council fifty-two representatives from the country. Lucerne and Schaffhausen declared their subjects free, and uni- ted to themselves. Zurich promised amendments to her constitution, and released the prisoners of 1793, while even Freiburg granted the reforms for which Chenaur had died. The work to which the councils had refused to put their hands, was now accomplished in the short space of four weeks. It 383 884 French Invasion. was a pity that it should have been begun a hun- dred years too late. The French came relentlessly on, and the can- tons looked about in terror for some means of de- fence. Two centuries of peace had left them with an untried courage, and they could form no idea of the perils that were in store for them. The land- sturm, or reserve, gathered in undisciplined compa- nies, armed with every variety of weapon, and telling their beads as they came. The Waldstat- ten had a few feeble companies, and Berne, Solo- thurn, and Freiburg sent regular troops, whose officers were utterly inexperienced. The war began on the 2d of March, and on that very day Freiburg and Solothurn were occupied by the light troops of the French. On the 3d, a Burgundian regiment in Brune's army reached the old battle- field of Morat, and destroyed the bone-house, which had remained as a memorial of the Swiss triumph, with its inscription, " Stand, still, ye Swiss; here lies the army bold, Liege fell, and France once trembled at its blow, 'Twas not in numbers lay their strength of old, But union nerved their arms, and struck the foe. Know, brothers, then, your power; it lies in courage true. O may that courage breathe in all who read anew." Battle of the Grauholz. 385 The Swiss now gave all their energies to the defence of Berne, and with that object fought the battles of Neuenegg and the Grauholz on the first days of March, In the last of these the Bernese were commanded by d'Erlach, who proved himself worthy of his great ancestor, the hero of Laupen, and by the avoyer, Steigner. They had spent the night before the battle on the ground near their troops. Before he slept, Steigner had gone among the companies to try to inspire them with the spirit of their forefathers of Morgarten and Sem- pach ; but his voice was lost in the confused cries of his men. Some abused the enemy, others their own government and even their general. Never- theless, when the morning came, they fought like heroes. With their columns broken by the French fire, and many of them armed only with scythes and clubs, they rushed upon the enemy guns. Old men and boys siezed the wheels of the gun- carriages, and when the French soldiers, touched by their splendid courage, wished to spare their lives, and called upon them to surrender, they would not listen, but threw themselves in front of the cannon, to prevent their advance. The un- equal battle lasted two hours and a half, and moved the French to such admiration that the 386 French Invasion. best record of the deeds of the vanquished is found in the official bulletin of the victor. The battle on the Grauholz sealed the fate of Berne, and of its general d'Erlach. After the de- struction of his troops, he had escaped in the direc- tion of Thun, with the intention of organizing further resistance in the Oberland. Unfortunately, he met some of his own soldiers, smarting from the late defeat, and ready to make any one the scape-goat of their disaster. He was first arrested, and then, in a sudden tumult, torn to pieces by his own countrymen, whom he would have died to save. Berne capitulated on the 5th of March, and was pillaged by the French, who carried off every- thing that could be taken away. Even the poor bears were not left undisturbed in the dignified position which they had enjoyed since the founda- tion of the city. They were taken to the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, where they were mocked and jeered at by the gamins, whose malice, it is to be hoped, fell harmlessly against their thick coats. Among these bears was the aristocrat Martin, whose descent was traced directly from the pair given to the town by Re'ne', of Lorraine, their ally in the war against Charles the Bold. In The Helvetian Republic. 389 addition to the capture of their patron bears, the treasure-vaults of the city were emptied of the accumulated wealth of centuries, which was used by Napoleon to help in the equipment of his expe- dition to Egypt. Many years later, money was still circulated on the banks of the Nile, which bore the impression of the bear of Berne. " On the princely towers of Berne Fell the Gallic thunder-stroke; To the lake of poor Lucerne, All submitted to the yoke." France now declared the abolition of the con- federacy, and from its ruins decreed the rise of " the Helvetian republic, one and indivisible." All citizens were to have equal rights. Their general assemblies were to elect judges and the legislative council; the legislative council was to choose the general government, which appointed cantonal prefects, and other officials. To leave the cantons in their present extent was no part of the French plan. The whole Swiss territory was to be broken up into eighteen cantons of much the same size. Berne, with her subject provinces, was divided into the four cantons of Berne, Oberland, Aargau, and Vaud; Thurgau and the Italian bailiwicks made four more, while the thiee old cantons, with 390 French Invasion. Zug formed one, called the Waldstatten, and little Appenzell, losing its independent power, was merged into one with St. Gallen and the Rhein- thal, which was known as the Saiitis. Geneva and X Miihlhausen became the property of France. The old order seemed to have changed forever, under the influence of the French occupation. A spirit of resistance, however, was still alive in the Waldstatten, and they determined upon mak- ing a last stand for their independence. They put forth their declaration that " in battle and in blood, our fathers won the glorious jewel of our liberty, we will not lose it but in battle and in blood." In the sight of the French troops they took the oath of fidelity to their general, Reding. They were twice defeated, near Wollrau and on the Schindellegi, but gathered all their forces to- gether for a last effort on the Rothenthurm, near the field of Morgarten. There they again dared to struggle against the power before which half Europe had bent. They prayed fervently, not hoping to be saved by a miracle, but asking only that their death might be worthy of their fathers. Old men and women, dressed in shepherd's frocks, harnessed themselves to the cannons, which had been brought from Lucerne, and dragged them to Aloys Reding. 391 the Rothenthurm over the rocky paths of Stein and the Sattel. On the next day they fought with desperate courage and drove the French troops three times back to Aegeri. Nearly two thousand Frenchmen were killed, but the Wald- statten had suffered too much to profit by their victory. They fought well the next day, the 3d of May, at Arth. But their losses were heavy, and their supplies exhausted, and the conviction now grew on them that it was in vain to struggle. With the submission of despair, the three old cantons, the first to gain, and the last to lose their independence, made a treaty at Arth, and entered the Helvetian republic. " Reding then his standard raised, Drew his sword on Brumen's plain; But in vain his banner blazed, Reding drew his sword in vain. Where our conquering fathers died, Where their awful bones repose, Thrice the battle's fate he tried, Thrice o'erthrew his country's foes. Thus my country's life retired, Slowly driven from part to part; Unterwalden last expired, Unterwalden was the heart." Near the outlet of the Lake of Thun, stands 392 French Invasion. the memorial to Aloys Reding, whose name is kept by the Swiss with the same reverence as those of the victorious heroes of the fourteenth century. " Around a wild and woody hill A gravelled pathway treading, We reached a votive stone that bears The name of Aloys Reding. The sun regards it from the west ; And, while in summer glory He sets, his sinking yields a type Of that pathetic story." Thus the old bund of the confederates, which had lasted for four hundred and ninety years, was broken, in the brief space of seventy-four days, by the overwhelming power of France. The troubles of the confederates found no end in the treaty of Arth. During the four years of French occupation which followed, Switzerland suffered everything that could be imagined from the sever- ity of people who have grown up under oppres- sion. Not contented with carrying off the treas- ure of the rich cities, the French generals, levied war taxes, and sent many distinguished citizens into France as hostages for their payment. The peo- ple were unable to pay their debts, for everything that they possessed was taken from them, and AARAU G-loom and Despair. 395 those who owed them money had none to give. One of the soldiers that were quartered upon them, would waste or destroy in a day what would have kept a poor man's family for a week; and the cavalry took the last remnants of their forage. Their houses were stripped of furniture, and their gardens turned into deserts. They became weary of their hopeless lives, and when the French sol- diers sabred or bayoneted them for refusing the supplies which they had not to give, they had no spirit to strike in return. Each day brought its fresh story of violence or murder. Six men were killed in a few days in Berne and Lucerne, and seven perished at once in a little commune of Zurich, which had been among the first to welcome the French as deliverers. In Valais one hundred and fifty poor cretins were swept off the earth as useless rubbish, by the up- holders of freedom and equality. Well might the Swiss cry out to be saved from these savage friends, for the cantons which had been most devoted to the cause of liberty were the first to be ill-treated by these her sons. The feeling was soon general, which made a number of the great council exclaim. " It would be better to groan under tyranny, than 396 French Invasion. to enjoy such liberty as this." So the year 1798 closed in a gloom that was almost despair. Germany and France were again at war in the summer of 1799, and, after the French defeat at the Stockach, an Austrian army advanced into Swit- zerland. The government, which had been sitting at Lucerne, removed for safety to Berne, while Swiss soldiers fought against each other in the dif- ferent armies. In the canton of Schwyz the mountaineers at once rose against the French, kill- ing or driving them out in a short time, and Uri and Valais quickly followed her lead. The French and Austrians fought everywhere, from the valleys to the tops of the mountains, whence the chamois fled, at the unwonted sight of men. The Ger- mans took Grisons and lost it again, and at last entered Zurich victoriously, with Russians from Europe and Asia, as their allies. But the tide turned, and Massena gained a bloody battle near Zurich, destroying the Russians under Suwarrow, who had lately been put in command of the Aus- trian army. Suwarrow's tactics, said to be summed up in the two words " Forward," and " Attack," had raised him to this important com- mand ; but the talismanic words had failed him at last, and he saw his twenty thousand Russians A New Government. 397 annihilated. The result of this battle was the entire subjection of Switzerland, in -July, 1800, to the constitution imposed by France two years before. Internal changes followed each other quickly. The legislative council at Berne deposed the exec- utive directory ; a few months later an executive commission broke up the council, and at the end of a year a general assembly, with the high-sounding name of " Helvetian Diet," met in the same city, to undertake necessary reforms. Then the diet was arbitrarily broken up by some of its members, and a new government established, in October, 1801, with Reding, the general of the Rothen- thurm, at its head. After a brief existence of five months, Reding and the government were sup- pressed together. Throughout Switzerland there were constant changes like these at Berne, and the people generally endured them with the indiffer- ence they had acquired in these last hard years. This indifference was broken only by an occa- sional half-hearted attempt ,at insurrection, such as that in the canton of Valais, which had suffered most cruelly from the French occupation, con- tinued for the sake of holding a road over the Alps into Italy. When the French at last left 398 French Invasion. Switzerland, after the peace of Amiens, in 1802, the country once more roused itself to something of its old energy, but, unfortunately, only to efforts which were selfishly weak and ineffective. Valais declared herself an independent republic, and Zurich, Basel, and Schaffhausen separated from the general government. The three old cantons armed, avowedly against the government of Berne, and the landsturm of Aargau marched upon that city. The Helvetian Diet fled for safety to Lau- sanne, and the Helvetian army followed, to pro- tect its masters in the least dangerous spot that could be found. The discontented cantons held an assembly at Schwyz, and all parties were ready to fly at each other's throats, when a voice was heard that they dared not disobey. It was the voice of Napoleon, and it commanded peace. A French army again threatened Switzerland, and on the 21st of October, the people laid down their arms, and asked for his mediation. Delegates from all the cantons, and of all shades of opinions, were summoned to Paris, to deliberate, under the protection of Napoleon, upon the best means of governing their country. They were allowed free discussion, much as children are allowed to play at housekeeping, but the real COURTYARD OF THE KATHHAUS. BASEL. The Act of Mediation. 401 decision rested with the French Emperor alone. He ignored the wishes of the rational and liberal minority, that longed for the unity of Switzerland, and graciously permitted the wishes of the major- ity, that wished each canton to be a very indepen- dent state. On the 13th of February, 1803, he gave to the Swiss the "Act of Mediation," which he in- tended as their fundamental law, and thus entirely ' changed the arrangement of 1798. The new con- federacy was to consist of nineteen cantons, each of which was to be self-governing, while only the matters which concerned the confederacy as a whole were to come before the annual diet. This diet was to meet by turns in Berne, Zu- rich, Lucerne, Freiburg, Basel, and Solothurn. Every one of these cities was thus to become the capital, or vorort, once in six years. The chief magistrate of the vorort was to be called the landamann of Switzerland, and was to have the general supervision of the confederacy, and also to be a secretary of foreign affairs. No canton was to have subjects, and no family to have exclusive privileges ; but all Swiss were to have equal rights in trade and industry, and the right to live in any canton that they pleased, 402 French Invasion. without hindrance or objection. The territory of Switzerland included the thirteen original cantons, with Grisons, Aargau, Thurgau, St. Gallen, Vaud, and Ticino, as equal members of the bund. Tici- no was formed out of the Italian bailiwicks, and Grisons consisted of all that province, with the exception of the Valtelina. Valois and Geneva still belonged to France, and Neuchatel to Prussia. The Act of Mediation was accepted joyfully everywhere, except in a few communes of Zurich, which were quickty subdued by Zurich and her allies. The cantons now went to work to re- model and rearrange their internal affairs. The friends of Swiss unity, indeed, mourned over their lost idea, and the aristocratic families lamented their vanished power, while the convents mur- mured that their privileges had passed unrecog- nized in the new act ; but, on the whole, things wore a brighter appearance, and the Swiss resumed their work with what hope their five years of misery had left to them. CHAPTER XX. MATERIAL PROGRESS. NEW CONSTITUTIONS. [A. D. 1803 TO 1830.] THE ten years which followed the Act of Mediation, were years of peace and of progress, such as had not been known for cen- turies. The noble defence which the Swiss had made in 1798 was telling now, in their renewed spirit and vigor. There was a greater freedom of the press than had hitherto been known, and a flood of pamphlets and journals swept away the ignorance of public events which had made it a common saying, "that the Swiss knew more about anything that happened to the Grand Turk, than about what took place at Solothurn or Schaff- hausen." So troublesome had these restrictions upon the press been in the end of the last century, that Miiller, the historian of whom Switzerland is now justly proud, was obliged to print his book with the name of Boston on the title-page, and to 403 404 Material Progress. assume for his publisher the appropriate title of " Mensonger." Under the new rdgime, agriculture and in- dustries revived, and the schools of all the cantons were multiplied and improved. The military force was not neglected, but was put on such a footing that in one hour a large body of men could be sent at any time to any threatened point on the frontier. The new spirit of general interest and good feeling was especially shown in the help sent to the families of those unhappy people who perished in the great landslip at Goldau, in Schwyz. The wide- spread destruction which follows these landslips, makes them more dreaded by the Swiss, than snow-storms, avalanches, or even the water-floods, which rush down upon their villages in torrents. The great mass which overwhelmed Goldau was of the conglomerate stone, called, by the country people, " nagelfl iih," and was a thousand feet wide a hundred feet thick, and quite a league in length. It was detached from the Roszberg, on the even- ing of the 2d of September, and fell with an awful- roar, which was heard as far as Zurich. In a few moments Goldau, and four other villages, which had been a picture of prosperity, with their RATHHAUS. ZUO. Destruction of G-oldau. 407 brown cabins, standing in the midst of orchards, had vanished, and were no more seen. In these villages were swallowed up five hundred people, who had been distinguished throughout the country for their simple and genial speech and manners. " The mountain sepulchre of all I loved! The villages sank, and the monarch trees Leaned back from the encountering breeze, While this tremendous pageant moved ! The mountain forsook his perpetual throne, Came down from his rock, and his path is shown, In barrenness and ruin, where The secret of his power lies bare, His rocks in nakedness arise, His desolation mocks the skies." As a counterbalance to the ruin which had overtaken Goldau, in other parts of Switzerland, hundreds of acres were redeemed from barren- ness. Money was raised to drain the marshy shores of the Lake of Wallenstadt, and the evil spirits of hunger, fever, and dire poverty were thereby exorcised. The Linth canal, near Zurich, is another lasting monument of the energy of that period. The people who lived near the Linth, had suffered for many years by the steady rise of the river, which had constantly over- flowed its banks, and spread over the valley. 408 Material Progress. Once a cheerful grazing country, it had now become an unhealthy marsh, where little pools remained stagnant and poisonous throughout the year. Hans Escher, of Zurich, undertook and carried out the work of the great canal, which turned the waters of the Linth into the Wallensee, and kept it within bounds in the valley which it had ruined. The marshes were soon dried, and health and prosperity returned to the region. Escher's peaceful triumph was thoroughly appre- ciated by his countrymen, who gave him the title of "von der Linth," for himself and his de- scendants. In the increased prosperity which this and other improvements brought to the homes which had so long been desolated by French soldiers, the Swiss might well have almost for- gotten that their existence as a nation depended upon the will of one man. It was true of other countries besides France that " He ruled them like a tyrant; true, but none Were ruled like slaves, each felt Napoleon." The cantons continued to keep up the full num- ber of sixteen thousand men, the contingent which they supplied to the French army, and which was paid by the French government. The Simplon Road. 409 Valais, too, contributed the laborers for Napo- leon's great work, the making of the road across the Simplon. There he hewed " A pathway for his host above the cloud, Guiding their footsteps o'er the frost-work crown Of the throned Alps." In 1797, when Napoleon was at Milan, he had first formed the idea of this work, and some time later, a thousand French soldiers, under Bethen- court, had actually crossed the mountains by the Simplon. Finding that the long bridge at Isella had been broken by avalanches, they contrived to get a rope across the gorge, and every one of them, with their general at their head, swung themselves across into Italy. The immense task of making the road was performed in less than five years from 1801, and cost eighteen million francs, of which France and Italy contributed each a hundred thousand a month. It has twen- ty-two large bridges, and a great number of small ones, across the different chasms and water- courses. There are also long galleries, which are hewn for several hundred feet through the overhanging cliffs. Besides other means of refuge, there are houses all along the road, where the trav- 410 Material Progress. ellers may creep in in case of danger. It is one of the best and most enduring monuments of the energy and genius of its great designer. When Napoleon's fatal campaign in Russia was over, and the battle of Leipsic had driven him across the Rhine, the allied armies approached the Swiss frontier, and Austrian battalions took their way into France through Aargau, Basel, and Berne. Berne immediately took advantage of the general terror inspired by the Austrians, to declare The Act of Mediation annulled, and to reassert her rights over Vaud and Aargau. The other great cities also reclaimed their old possessions, and the diet which met at Zurich, in April, 1814, solemnly renounced the act of Napoleon, and laid the foundation of a new compact of nineteen con- federate states. Every canton now demanded all its old rights, and as many of those of its neigh- bors as it thought there was any chance of its being able to appropriate. At the same time, there were riots and conspira- cies, large and small, at Lucerne, Freiburg, and Solothurn ; confederate troops were obliged to march into Ticino, to prevent civil war there, and to interfere in St. Gallen, where the abbot was doing his best to destroy the peace of the canton. A MOUNTAIN* FOREST. Congress of Vienna. 413 Amidst all these storms and counter-currents, Zu- rich, Basel, and Schaffhausen alone seemed to retain something of a spirit of justice, and Vaud and Aargau made themselves respected by the strength of their determination to remain free. All Swiss affairs were in such confusion that the cantons were thankful to send deputies to the con- gress of Vienna in 1814, and to ask that body to put them in order again. With these deputies were also those of Valais, Geneva, and Neuchatel, who had long belonged to Switzerland in heart, and whom the allied sovereigns now permitted to become actual members of the republic. The powers pronounced their arbitration upon the Swiss matters on the 26th of March, 1815. They recognized the whole confederacy of twenty- two cantons, and tried hard to reconcile their numberless conflicting claims, in some cases re- storing territory to them, and in others granting an indemnity in money. Arrangements were also made for the gradual settlement of the Helvetian debt of three millions and a half of francs, and after the confederacy had accepted the decision of the powers, they, in their turn guaranteed that the neutrality of Switzerland should be respected in all future wars. 414 Material Progress. This decision at Vienna settled the basis of the present confederation ; but for the next fifteen years Swiss freedom suffered from the bad effects of the interposition it had asked. It was true that civil wars ceased for the moment, but the re- public had passed under the influence of kings, and the result was soon apparent. During the reaction from revolution, which created the Holy Alliance of legitimate sovereings, the Roman Catholic church regained its influence, and liberty of thought, speech, and writing, was subdued. The Holy Alliance demanded that restrictions should be put upon the press, and the cantonal governments hastened to obey ; it favored the re- turning power of the aristocratic families, and the people dared say nothing against it. Swiss regi- ments fought in upholding the kings of France, the Netherlands, and Naples, while their govern- ments at home made laws forbidding any support to political refugees. In Valais and Freiburg the Jesuits preached, and instructed childen, with untiring energy. The convents and monasteries, fifty-nine of which had been recognized by the Vienna arbitration, asserted themselves once more, and recovered many of their lost rights. Reichenburg in Schwyz, fell again under the rule Retrogression. 415 of the abbey of Einsiedeln, without a protest from any of the cantons. The diets were remarkable only for their dis- putes, which were bitter in proportion to the petti- ness of their subjects. No deputy would yield anything for the common good. They talked very well of the advantages of free-trade, a uniform currency, and the abolition of the numberless tolls, but nothing was really accomplished. On the con- trary, the citizens were forced to submit to in- creased taxes, to military and road service, and to see immense extravagance and waste in all pub- lic expenditure. In almost every respect things seemed to have gone back to the same state in which they were before 1798. But as the night of nations is never absolutely dark, there were still some faint signs of a better day to come. The establishment of a federal mili- tary school at Than was a measure undertaken solely for the public good. In some few of the cantons the people still kept up their scientific societies. The Helvetian Society which had been founded in the time of Swiss decadence, by the philanthropist, Iselin of Basel, and a few other kindred spirits, continued its good work. Having for its object the spread of knowledge, and the 416 Material Progress. increase of patriotic spirit, good and liberal men were each year added to its numbers, in spite of the suspicious ill-will of the narrow-minded cantonal governments. Another means of prog- ress, was found in the federal shooting-matches, in which young men from all parts of Switzerland came together, and learned in their friendly con- tests to know and respect each other's skill and courage. Better still were the meetings which took place once a year on the old battle-fields, and which kept alive the recollection, in the modern Swiss, of the constancy of their forefathers. One monument of public spirit during this period exists, also, in the great road over the St. Gothard, built by Uri and Ticino in the course of ten years from 1820. The history of the St. Gothard pass is pecu- liarly one of disaster and death. Several persons are still lost there every year, and there are some- times terrible accidents. In 1478, sixty Swiss sol- diers perished; in 1624, three hundred people were buried in an avalanche ; and in 1816, a long pack train was lost in the same way, although it is only a five hours walk from Airolo, on the Ticino side, to Urseren, in Uri. There are many refuges on the way where the travellers may find shelter THE HOLLOW WAY AT KUSSNACUT. St. Crothard. 419 and the modern hospice has grown into a grand pile of buildings. Father Placido a Speche wrote about the pass in the fourteenth century, and quoted the records of Disentis to show that there had been a hospice at the foot of the mountains as early as 1300, and that a hospice and chapel had been built on the top by the abbot of Dis- entis before the end of the century. In 1431, a certain canon was sent there to attend upon the church fathers, who were on their way to the coun- cil of Basel ; and St. Carlo Borromeo had intended, just before his death, to build a large house on the same spot. In 1683, a capuchin hospice was built, which was twice destroyed ; once by ava- lanches and once by the French soldiers encamped there, who used the buildings for firewood. This is the peaceful history of the pass, but it is also remembered as being the way by which the men of Uri marched with the confederates to put down the rebellion of Leventina, and as the scene of a desperate struggle between France, Austria, and Russia ; a struggle the result of which is seen in the inscription on the granite rocks at the upper end of the Val Tremola, " Suwarrow victor." Such was the pass at which Uri and Ticind worked until, in 1830, the road was completed 420 Material Progress. wliich has made its ascent comparatively safe and which, " Shines afar, Catching the eye in many a broken link, In many a turn and traverse as it glides." Among the bridges on the St. Gothard road is one that had already been used for a long time, and which still bears the name of the Devil's Bridge. " Never any bridge but this Could stand across this wild abyss ; All the rest, of wood or stone, By the devil's hand were everthrown. Abbott Giraldus of Einsiedel, For pilgrims on their way to Eome, Built this at last, with a single arch, Under which, on its endless march, Runs the river, white with foam, Like a thread through the eye of a needle, And the devil promised to let it stand, Under compact and condition, That the first living thing that crossed, Should be surrendered into his hand And be beyond redemption lost. At length, the bridge being all completed, The Abbott, standing at its head, Threw across it a loaf of bread, Which a hungry dog sprang after, And the rocks re-echoed with peals of laughter To see the devil thus defeated." New Constitutions. 421 In July 1830, Charles X. was dethroned, after three days of street fighting in Paris. Belgium and Poland immediately broke out into insurrec- tion, and there were plots and risings in Ger- many and Italy. The members of the Holy Al- liance had quite enough to do in taking care of themselves, and the liberal wave spreading even into Switzerland, the people everywhere began to ask for a change in their constitutions, to be made by the deputies of their own choice. It was in vain that the cantonal governments tried to delay and temporize ; the people were thoroughly roused, and by the end of the year constituent councils were at work in almost every canton, and the business of remodelling the constitutions went quickly on. By the beginning of 1831, eleven cantons had accepted these new instruments, which had been drawn up in a spirit of moderate and gradual reform. These eleven cantons were pretty equally divided in religion ; they were the Protestant Vaud, Berne, Zurich, and Schaffhausen, the Catholic Lucerne, Freiburg, Solothurn, and Ticino, with Aargau, Thurgau, and St. Gallen, in which the people were of mixed faith. Schwyz, however, stoutly resisted her new con- stitution, and bade defiance to petitions, uegotia- 422 Material Progress. tors, and even the mediation of the whole confed- eracy. The chiefs of the scanty population of what was known as the free land, or Inner District, knew what was due to their own dignity, and no pope of Rome, in the palmy days of the papacy, could have held more lofty language towards his opponents. At last the outer districts of the marsh, Einsiedeln, Kussnacht, and Pfeffikon, determined to break up, after the fashion of Ap- penzell, and to form a new commonwealth of their own. In this they could not succeed, and the settlement of their difficulties was put off to a more convenient season. At the same time, Neuchatel also broke out in disturbances, which led to bloodshed. Neuchatel, which had been a Prussian province only since 1707, had formerly belonged to the Habsburgs, and had for centuries enjoyed the rights of co- burghership with several of the Swiss cities. Though ruled justty and mercifully by King Frederick William, their sympathies were entirely with Switzerland, and after sixteen years of experi- ence as a canton, they wanted to throw off Prussia altogether. Instead of trying to accomplish this peaceably, a few hundred armed men seized the castle of Neuchatel on the 12th of September, A Reverse. 425 1831. They enjoyed their victory only a fortnight, at the end of which time they were driven out by confederate troops. Three months later, a small band again revolted, and were dispersed by the government troops with great loss of life. After the first attempt, the offenders had all been par- doned, but this time every one who was guilty was punished, and many also who were innocent. The independence of Neuchatel was postponed, by this premature rising, for nearly twenty years. CHAPTER XXI. DIVISION OF BASEL. DISPUTES WITH FRANCE [A. D. 1831 TO 1836.] THE canton of Basel was at the same time the scene of far more serious disturbances, which, after a struggle of more than two years, ended in the permanent division of the canton. This divi- sion was not marked by a natural boundary, such as that which separated the Ob- from the Mid- walden, nor by the deep religious differences which had torn Appenzell asunder, but was sim- ply caused by bad faith on the part of the city, which drove the country people to despair. When the people of Basel, following the other cantons, asked for a revision of their constitution, the great council, composed almost entirely of burgh- ers, drew up one which comfirmed every unjust privilege granted to the city in 1815. This revision in the wrong direction naturally failed to be accept- able to the country people, and their members, 426 Liesenthal la Joyeuse. 427 after protesting, and receiving in return only insults, left the council hall. All the communes of the country districts became furious. They planted trees of liberty, and estab- lished an independent government at Liesenthal, the little place which Napoleon had called "La joyeuse," where the first liberty pole had been set up, in 1792. The city troops were sent .against these revolutionists, and many of them were taken, bound with ropes, through the streets of Basel, amidst the insults of the rabble. They were punished in the severest way, and the new constitution was forced upon their unwilling vil- lages. The sympathy which was felt for them in the neighboring cantons only caused the govern- ment of Basel to treat them with still greater severity, and to strengthen her fortifications and garrison. The people were annoyed and insulted when they came to the city for trade ; the mails were tampered with, and no petty tyranny was wanting to drive them into rebellion. To restore the order which the city government had itself disturbed, it sent against Liesenthal, the city troops, with some heavy artillery. This force was met by the landsturm, beaten in an obstinate fight, and driven back to the city. The conl'ed- 428 Division of Basel. eracy became indignant at this last attempt of Basel, and sent troops into the canton to keep the peace. Basel, enraged at this interference, denounced the general government, and expelled from her republic forty-five communes, though the confederacy protested against this unheard-of proceeding. Once, more this city sent troops against her people, and once more they were beaten back by the enraged landsturm. Again the diet inter- fered, and Basel closed her gates against the con- federate troops and mediators. Finally the diet met at Lucerne, and, being persuaded of the hope, lessness of all attempts at reconciliation, solemnly divided the canton into two parts. Basel-city was composed of the town itself, and twelve vil- lages which had held by her during the troubles. Basel-country contained fifty-three communes, and was admitted by the confederacy as a half can- ton, with rights and privileges equal to the other members. A question now arose as to the confederate guarantee of the new constitutions, which had been accepted by the individual cantons and needed this guarantee for their confirmation. The fatal influence of the aristocratic party was A Conservative Spirit. 431 so strong in nearly all the cantons, as to lead them to refuse this, and also the confirmation of the division of Basel. Seven of the larger can- tons, Zurich, Berne, Lucerne, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Aargau, and Thurgau, in this emergency, agreed to mutually uphold their constitutions until the general guarantee could be obtained. Against this movement, the patrician leaders in Berne secretly collected arms and enlisted soldiers, with the purpose of overthrowing the new constitutions by force. Their conspiracy was betrayed, and the eyes of the people everywhere were opened to the fact, that the aristocratic party would never acqui- esce in popular freedom. In the meantime Basel-city, feeling herself un- able single-handed, to cope with the confederacy, had called to her aid, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwulden, Valais, and Neuchatel. All these cantons, except Valais, met in November, 1832 at the village of Sarnen, in the Obwalden, near the scenes where Nicholas von der Flue passed his life. They forgot the old saint's exhortation to union, and agreed to hold fast to the spirit of 1815, and to refuse to recognize Basel-country. With the true spirit of conservatism, like that of the man, who, when told that the facts were against him, said, "So 432 Division of Basel. much the worse for the facts," they wished to raise the ghost of seventeen years before, and to ignore all the substantial realities of progress. When the general diet met at Zurich, in March, 1833, the deputies of the Sarnen league held sullenly aloof. They met instead at Schwyz, where they denounced the diet as an illegal assem- bly, to which they would not submit. The diet still hoped to effect a friendly settlement of the difficulty, and agreed to have a day of mediation on the 5th of August, when the deputies on both sides should appear. The Sarnen league agreed to this, but proceeded in advance to open hos- tilities. Six hundred men of Inner Schwyz marched, on the night of the 30th of July, to Kiissnacht, which they took, making some of the people prisoners. They were going on to the con- quest of the rest of the district, when a thousand armed men from Lucerne drove them back. The diet heard of this 011 the next day, and at last realized the uselessness of words. Twenty bat- talions were ordered at once to occupy Schwyz ; and had already started on their march when the news came of a third attack by Basel upon its own country-people. The city had sent out a force of sixteen hundred men, with twelve pieces of artil- A New Government. 433 lery but they were beaten by the landsturm, in the oak wood of Oehrli, where they lost nearly one fifth of their number in killed and wounded. The city was now touched by her own sufferings, and by the mourning into which the best families of the town were thrown. Perhaps the conscience of the gov- ernment was quickened also by the energetic measures of the diet. Basel was entered on the 10th of August, the league ' of Sarnen was dis- solved, and peace once more established. The questions in dispute between city and country remained to be settled. The diet con- firmed the division of Basel and determined the share of public property which was to go to each half-canton, and the part of the expenses of occu- pation which each should bear. On the other hand, Schwyz was reunited, with a new constitu- tion which made all the communes equal. The troops were publicly thanked for their good be- havior, and the diet, which had shown itself equal to the occasion, broke up on the 16th of October. The Lucerne league was indeed broken up, but the spirit which had inspired it, constantly re- appeared in the discussions which followed the proposal of any new measures. For the next few years, however, the cantons, individually, seemed 434 Division of Basel. possessed by a desire of improvement. Old spears were removed, and in every department of educa- tion, from scientific institutions to the common village schools, the work of teaching went on with renewed zeal. The muscles and nerves of the Swiss were trained also in constant drill, and in shooting-matches, and the diet for once united in the measure of improving the equipment of the federal army. The relations of Switzerland to the outside world, from 1830 to 1836, were several times dis- turbed by the differences growing out of the Swiss reception of all refugees, without distinction of nationality. Besides the trouble with other powers which this brought upon them, they suf- fered themselves from the hospitality, which they often found a burden. In 1833, Berne had been afflicted by the arrival of five hundred Poles, who were among the remnant that fled from the wrath of Russia, after their vain attempt at indepen- dence. Berne found this influx of strangers a grievous tax, which the other cantons refused to share, so that they remained for some time a charge upon that city. At the same time there were also in Berne other foreigners, of a less re- spectable character than the Poles, who used the Refugees and Plots. 437 kindness of their hosts, as a means by which to gather up their strength for attempts at revolution, and even regicide. In 1834, some of these refugees had arranged a plot, the object of which was the destruction of monarchy in Savoy. Italian exiles had declared that the people there were most anx- ious to get rid of their king, and persuaded some few Germans and a number of Poles, who were tired of inactivity, to join in their plot. At the head of the enterprise they put Romarino, a Polish general of some distinction. In the month of January, the conspirators made their way to the banks of Lake Leman, in such small parties as to escape observation at first, and obtained arms, which had been concealed for them. The report of their real intentions soon spread, and both Vaud and Geneva called out troops to bar their way into Savoy. Some few stragglers were seized in the streets of Geneva, but were immediately rescued by a -mob, and the main body of the conspirators proceeded on its way, and suc- ceeded in crossing the frontier near Caronge. There they disarmed a few custom-house officers, took some public money, and distributed addresses calling upon the people to car-t off the tyrant's yoke. They had expected to be joined at once by 438 Disputes with France. thousands of discontented Savoyards, but their expectation was unanswered. Not one appeared to swell their ranks. The people merely looked on, with very little curiosity as to the fate of their would be benefactors. News soon arrived that the royal troops were making a forced inarch from Chambe'ry. The ragged regiment did not wait to receive them, but folloAved the example of General Romarino, who immediately saved himself by flight. In two days they were all back again in Geneva, where the Poles were arrested, while the rest of the invading army was allowed to go quietly home. The aristocratic party, still smarting from its defeat of the last year, was loud in its attacks upon the liberals, whom it accused of aiding and sympathizing with the movement. It rejoiced when the foreign powers declared their intention of making Switzerland answerable for the attack on Savoy, Sardinia was. the first to complain, and Austria soon followed. Both of these govern- ments demanded that all political refugees among their subjects, should be expelled from Swiss soil. In a short time three German states, Prussia, the German league, Naples, and even Russia, sent notes with similar demands. In the midst of The Powers Remonstrate. 439 this threatened storm, Switzerland remained calm. Zurich, the Vorort, replied to the foreign ambassa- dors, that she had already, with the consent of the cantons, sentenced the guilty refugees to banish- ment. This answer failed to satisfy the imperious powers. Another shower of notes descended upon Zurich, and interdicts were soon laid upon com- merce with Switzerland, while foreign troops were put in motion towards her frontiers. At this point Louis Philippe interposed, with a permission for the Poles to return to France, and the country was soon rid of its troublesome guests. Many other exiles left Switzerland at the same time, and, on Zurich giving the powers an assurance of future quiet, a war, which must have been disas- trous for the republic, was averted. There were people in Switzerland, however, who loudly stigmatized the conduct of Zurich as cowardly, and who demanded the dismissal of those ambassadors who had pressed the claims of their courts. The deputies of Berne and Lucerne had been especially warlike in their speeches in the diet, and the liberal part/ began to consider Berne as the true Vorort, which alone was wor- thy to be the guardian of Swiss honor. The con- servatives, on the other hand, thought Berne's 440 Disputes with France. language hopelessly rash, and un incident which soon afterwards took place in that canton, came very near renewing all the trouble. In the end of June, at a little watering-place near Berne, some German workmen raised the black and yellow flag, and drank to a German re- public. This proceeding was very much exagger- ated, and several foreign envoys joined in demand- ing that Berne should punish what was looked upon as a conspiracy against the thrones of Europe. Berne replied in the spirit of our own republic, " With us, the free expression of opinion is no crime, and, where no law is broken, there is 110 occasion for punishment." Upon this, the Ger- man envoys with one accord left Berne, and gave up all intercourse with that canton. With pater- nal care of their subjects, the German govern- ments forbade German mechanics to become contaminated by learning their trades in Berne, or even in Switzerland, and no German boy was suffered to learn his Latin or mathematics at the new and thriving universities of Zurich or Berne. During the next year, however, Berne became, in her regular turn, Vorort of the confederacy, and like the wild prince coming to the throne, began to modify her line of conduct. She kept her principles, A Royal Professor. 443 but softened their expression, and at last in June, 1835, Count Bombelles, who had been the least easily appeased of the foreign ambassadors, came back to his residence in Berne. In 1836, there were signs of a storm brewing in another direction, that of their good neighbor, France. Louis Philippe had in the first years of his reign shown himself very friendly to the re- public which had sheltered him in 1792. At that time, when he had just escaped with his life from France, it was not safe for him to seek for a refuge in his own name. Calling himself Chabaud-La- tour, he appeared on an October evening, at the little village of Reichenau, and knocked at the school-room door. An examination proved that though poor and unknown, the stranger was pos- sessed of various acquirements. He understood geography and mathematics, and even English, which he spoke with an excellent French accent. He immediately obtained the position of under- master in the Reichenau school, with the salary of fifteen hundred francs a year. No one troubled himself much about the harmless stranger, and he kept his secret until one day he took up the news- paper in a little inn, and on looking at it, burst into tears. It contained the news of the execution 444 Disputes with France. of his father, Philippe Egalite. Years had come and gone since then, and his feeling for Switzerland now cooled while he was trying to warm a friend- ship with Austria. Overlooking the fact that he had been a political exile himself, he grew suspi- cious of those of the same class who were now harbored by Switzerland. Many of these, who had been engaged in the attempt on Savoy had returned, and begun to form political societies. " Young Germany " and " Young Italy " were their watchwards, and they soon laid a plan for the invasion of the duchy of Baden. Switzerland determined to expel these firebrands, and, as before, asked a free passage from France. During the arrangement of this, the French ambassador, Montebello, used such in- sulting and threatening language to the republic, and to its president, Tscharner of Berne, that the indignation of the confederacy was aroused. All the cantons protested, except those of the Sarnen league, who delighted at the chance of humiliating their country, voted for abject submission to what- ever France might demand. At the same moment it was discovered that Montebello was secretly em- ploying as a spy, a Frenchman named Conseil, whom he had publicly denounced. This double- An Olive Branch. 447 dealing roused Switzerland to the point of com- plaining of Montebello to his government. France retaliated by demanding satisfaction for this insult, and by putting a stop to all trade on the Swiss frontier. Even the mails were stopped, and no one could travel from Basel to Geneva. Switzer- land stood this trial bravely. In many cantons the people themselves voted against any inter- course with France. In that country itself there were heard such murmurs against the injustice and inconvenience of the measures of government, that it became necessary to repent of them, and to raise the blockade, which had lasted for six weeks. The irate Montebello recovered his tem- per, and during the winter gave a grand entertain- ment, Avhich was accepted as an olive-branch by the city of Berne. CHAPTER XXII. FRESH RELIGIOUS DISPUTES. QUARREL WITH FRANCE ABOUT LOUIS NAPOLEON. [A. D. 1837 TO 1841.] RELIGIOUS disputes soon followed upon the settlement of the quarrel with France. Ever since the time of Napoleon's fall, the papal government had formed the plan of bringing Switzerland back under the wing of the mother- church, and of making it a base of future trans- alpine operations. The papal nuncio had, in 1814, returned to his old seat at Lucerne, and remodelled the church government in Switzerland. The old bishoprics were broken up into smaller ones, and the nuncio ruled over the dioceses himself, in spite of the earnest wish of the people for a Swiss archbishop. The power of the church was, at this time, directed towards influencing municipal elec- tions and village governments, and thus the arms which had been put into the hands of the liberals were cleverly turned against them. 448 Church and State. 451 Catholic popular unions were set on foot, with priests as leaders. From the Jesuits, who, with Schwyz as their centre, conducted these opera- tions, and from the foreign propaganda, money came in abundance to keep up these leagues. Celestin, abbot of Einsiedeln, made himself es- pecially prominent in the help which lie gave to all the nuncio's schemes. Prosecutions of several in- dividuals followed, and that of the priest, Aloys Fuchs, who was deprived of his ministry for preaching in favor of some reforms, brought the movements of the Jesuits directly into public notice. At the same time the bishops attempted a more direct interference in public affairs, and this roused the indignation of the cantonal gov- ernments, Catholic as well as Protestant. In the protocol of the Baden conference, seven can- tons, Berne, Lucerne, Solothurn, Basel-country, Aargau, Thurgau, and St. Gallen, subscribed to three articles ; first, that the approval of the civil authority was necessary to legalize the decrees of the church ; that mixed marriages should be law- ful, and that the priests must take an oath of alle- giance to the constitution. The conference also took preliminary steps towards obtaining a S \viss archbishop. As soon as these proceedings became 452 Fresh Religious Disputes. known, the wrath of the ultra Roman Catholic party rose high against them. Gregory XVI., is- sued a circular epistle, in which he described the articles as "false, erring, and tending to heresy and schism." Armed with this authority the Catholics felt that they did well to be angry, and "the red-stockings," as those of the opposing party were called, only added fuel to their rage. In Solothurn and St. Gallen the articles were en- tirely rejected. In Lucerne ihey were adopted, in spite of a large and powerful party that opposed them. The nuncio was so indignant at this action that he shook the dust off his feet against the dar- ing city, and retired in November, 1835, into Schwyz, where the Jesuits were at last received. Thurgau confirmed the articles in spite of her clergy, but open rebellion broke out in Aargau and Berne. The priests in the communes of Aargau refused to read, at the early mass, an address which the great council had issued with the view of quieting the people, and had ordered to be set forth in all the churches. On the priests being suspended for this refusal, the bishop of Basel took their part, notwithstanding that he was warned against meddling by the magistrates' "declaration that the A Spirit of Conciliation. 453 things of Caesar belonged to Caesar. The council demanded the oath of allegiance from the priests, and moreover decreed that the state should in future have a supervision over the abbey and con- vent property which had been for a long time mis- managed and wasted. The situation now became critical, and it seemed as if the old religious wars of Appenzell and the Orisons were to be repeated in Aargau. The government, finding it could not maintain quiet, called in troops from the neigh- boring cantons. The excited districts were quiet- ly occupied, and the leaders of the discontent fled. Some few priests were arrested, and the Catholic unions broken up, but the great council was disposed to carry out its decrees in a spirit of conciliation. It declared that the oath to be taken by the priests was not inimical to the Catholic faith, and this declaration induced the priests to yield without further opposition. In the canton of Berne the discontent was con- fined to the Oberland, in the mountain valleys of the Jura. The people there had been roused by the priests into a fanatical opposition to the Baden articles and to the oath. The cry of " Religion is in danger " was all that was necessary to drive these simple and pious people to resistance. They 454 Fresh Religious Disputes. demanded a separation from the rest of Berne, and one of their priests, the Vicar Belet, called upon the French ambassador to interfere. The government prevailed in Berne also, but could make no better use of its victory, than to begin a discussion with the pope on the propriety of the Baden articles, a piece of courtesy which his holi- ness was not slow to appreciate. Rome put in the small end of her wedge accordingly, by the intro- duction of the Jesuits into Schwyz, where they were received with open arms by the nuncio, who had found a haven there. Every Protestant in Switzerland felt the force of this movement, which was the small beginning that led to the Sonder- bund war of 1847. The time for the struggle had not yet come, and the Jesuit fathers solemnly en- tered the canton in May, 1836. Schwyz was at that time divided, not by questions of faith, but by the disputes of the Homers, named from their possessions of cattle, and the Klauens, who fed their sheep in the same coveted pastures. The sheep owners at last meekly submitted, but not until after a bloody but primitive battle with clubs, in which the Homers vanquished their oppo- nents completely. All minor differences were sunk for the time by Louis Napoleon. 457 the danger which appeared imminent of a rupture with France. The grievance on the part of the French at this time, referred to no less a person than their future emperor. Louis Napoleon was at that time an exile, whose great destiny was dis- cerned by none of the people among whom he lived. Neither could they foresee the influence which he was to have later, on many of their own political events. He was then living with his mother, Queen Hortense, at the oastle of Arenen- berg, in Thurgau. Arenenberg is one of the most beautiful of all the beautiful chateaux that are scattered along the shores of the Untersee. From its windows one looks .down on the lake below, and on the island of Reichenau, which, in its soft loveliness, lies beneath. There, years after the brilliant day of the great Napoleon had passed, the mother and her son waited, as, in the last few years, another mother and son have waited, for the dawn in which they believed. These hopes are dead enough now, killed by the African spears which have sent the son of Louis Napoleon beyond the region of hopes or fears. But in 1837, the father had still his life before him, and dreamed of his plans for revolution, while he lived as a citizen of Thurgau, and ap- 458 Quarrel with France about Louis Napoleon. peared to have no ambition beyond the office which he held, that of president of the Thurgau Rifle Club. General Dufour was his instructor, when he went to learn his drill at the military school of Thun, and he had also formed a friend- ship with Kern, which was of service to the re- public after he had come to the throne. In October, both France and Switzerland were elec- trified by the news of his revolutionary attempt at Strasburg. He was imprisoned for a short time on account of it, and then banished to America. During his mother's last illness he re- turned to Thurgau, and remained there even after her death, which took place just a year after his failure at Strasburg. France now grew uneasy at the near neighborhood of this firebrand, in spite of its never having succeeded in kindling' any- thing. On the 1st of August, 1838, the French government made a formal complaint to Switzer- land of the residence of Napoleon, and asked that he should be expelled from the country. A vehement discussion in the diet followed. The deputies from the western cantons, from Aar- gau and Thurgau, declared the demand of France to be altogether unwarrantable, and that the prince must be protected as a citizen of Thurgau. Other Warlike Scenes. 461 deputies were afraid of this course, and the diet at length decided that fresh instructions on the sub- ject should be asked for. The French govern- ment threatened war,, and ordered troops from Lyons to the frontier. In return, Geneva and Vaud, who would be the first to suffer in case of war took up arms, and in a few days, cannon bristled from all the fortifications of Geneva, and twenty-five thousand men stood ready to guard the frontier. Their enthusiasm spread fast through the country. Canton after canton voted to refuse the demand of France, and to receive the shock of the attack rather than yield an inch to French compulsion. When the French troops reached Gex, they found to their amazement, a well-disciplined army waiting to receive them. At this moment the question was solved for both parties by the cause of the dispute. The president of the diet was handed a letter from the prince, which he lost no time in making public. Louis announced that he should leave Thurgau and Switzerland at once, in order to avoid giving an occasion for war between two friendly powers. Louis Philippe, who had felt secure of frightening the Swiss into compli- ance, and who had seen with great surprise the 462 Quarrel with France about Louis Napoleon. effect of his demand, was perhaps more pleased than any one else at this peaceful result. Unnec- essary war was no part of that peaceful monarch's policy, and his troops were immediately recalled. In 1839 there were new disturbances in the ever- disturbed Zurich. In this important canton, num- berless internal improvements had sprung up in the last twenty years. Excellent roads promoted commerce, and since the fortifications which dated back to the middle ages had been levelled, the city had been very much extended, and its suburbs embellished and improved. Public buildings which were worthy of a large capital had been erected, and were the pride of the new generation of Zurichers. The university was famous beyond Switzerland, and Thomas Scherr, who, though German born, was a naturalized citizen of Zurich, had laid the improved foundation of the public schools. While these improvements went on, the aristocratic party, worthy descendants of the bur- gomaster Stiissi, stood aloof, and waited for a chance of attacking the progressive citizens. This was soon given to them in the government offer of the chair of theology, in the university, to David Strauss of Wurtemlmrg. Apart from all party questions religious people throughout the David Frederick Strauss. 463 canton were shocked at the idea that the author of the recent " Life of Jesus " should be appointed to the guidance of their children on theological questions. The cry was at once raised that the government was about to destroy their religion, and that their children would become heathen. The conservatives did not stop at accusing Strauss, but directed their attack against all liberals, and against any one who said a word either in their defence or his. A " committee of faith " was chosen, which soon gained great influence, and which sent to the great council an address, with fort}* thousand signatures, demanding that Strauss' nomination should be changed, and that the church should rule in matters of education. The council yielded at last, and dismissed Strauss with a pen- sion, but quiet was not restored. Every day the church party asked more, and the government, weak and vacillating, first refused, and then granted their demands. Dr. Rahn-Escher, a very influential member of the committee of faith, now ordered an armed demonstration. On the night of the 5th of Sep- tember, horsemen were seen galloping along the shores of the lake, and calling on the people to put away their sacrilegious rulers. The next morning, 464 Fresh Religious .Disputes. the landsturm, armed with scythes and guns, and led by Pastor Hirzel of Pfeffikon, appeared before the gates of Zurich. They rushed across the Lim- mat bridge in disorderly masses, and reached the cathedral square, where they were met by a hand- ful of armed men, who refused to give way. Hir- zel cried out, " Then fire, in the name of God ! " One of the councillors, who stepped between the two parties, to prevent bloodshed, fell dead upon the ground, shot from behind. The soldiers and nearly all the officials fled, the burgomaster, with those who remained, forming a provisional govern- ment under the auspices of Rahn-Escher and his associates. This new government was very severe towards every one connected with the old adminis- tration, but set off this sternness by opening the prison doors to many criminals. In a short time a new election was held, and the cantonal offices were filled from the ranks of the church party. The chajige of government at Zurich was followed by disturbances in several different cantons, and by the beginning of what was known as the convent question in Aargau. Aargau was destined to be the most prominent of the cantons for a period of seven years, from 1840. At that time there already existed in Aargau a league for the maintenance of Stormy Meetings. 467 all the rights of the Catholic church. At a great meeting of these leaguers, held at Mellingen, in February, they put forth an address to the great council, in which they asked that the restrictions on the right of the convents to manage their prop- erty should be removed. This petition was re- fused, and at the same time the government voted that the representation to the great council should in future be in proportion to ^he number of electors, which would give the Protestants much more in- fluence. The Catholics saw in this measure an attack on their liberties. " The reformed " they said, "far outnumber us, and we shall be made slaves." Stormy meetings were held, where a division of the canton, like that of Appenzell, was constantly threatened. The Catholics proceeded to recruit and arm soldiers, while the government, alarmed, ordered the arrest of some of their leaders, on the 9th of January, 1841. A mob at once assembled to attack the bailiffs house at Muri, and release the prisoners. At Zurzach, at the same time, Father Theodosius of the Capuchins, of Baden, himself ordered the assembling and arming of the country people. On the other hand, Colonel Frey-Herose of the government troops, marched to Villmergen. 468 Fresh Religious Disputes. where, on the llth of January, Swiss for the third time fought against each other. The insurgents were soon dispersed, and the government troops marched to Muri, where they occupied the abbey. The rebellion was checked, but the government felt a sort of horror at the danger it had so nar- rowly escaped. Augustine Keller proposed in the great council that the convents, which he looked upon as the secret sources of all the mischief, should be abolished at once and forever. His motion was immediately passed, with scarcely a dissenting voice. By this measure four nunneries, the abbeys of Muri and Wettingen, and the Capuchin monaster- ies at Bremgarten and Baden, found their existence of many centuries suddenly ended. The monks and nuns were not, indeed, to be thrown helpless upon the world. They were all' to be pensioned out of the abbey revenues, the remainder of which was to go to Catholic schools and churches. This decision caused such excitement throughout Swit- zerland, that an extraordinary diet was called to consider it. At this diet such bitterness was shown as had not been seen since the days of Stanz and St. Nicholas. The three Ur- or primitive cantons demanded that the convents should be at Monasteries and Nunneries. 469 once re-established, basing their demand upon the twelfth article of their old bond. Dr. Wieland, the deputy of Aargau, replied that the existence of the canton was threatened by these hot-beds of insurrection, and that it was a question of Aargau or the convents, the continuance of both having become impossible. On the 2d of April, however, twelve cantons declared the act of suppression to be illegal. Still Aargau did not altogether yield. She sus- pended the execution of her decree, to give the diet time to change ; and in the meantime con- stantly urged her view of the case upon the other cantons. Berne soon adopted it, and when Aargau exempted the three nunneries of Fahr, Gnadenthal, and Mariakronung, from the decree of abolition, Vaud and Schaffhausen also gave her their votes. Still Aargau could not obtain the desired majority. The restoration of the convents was demanded vehemently by Lucerne, the Waldstatten, Zug, and Freiburg, and more moderately by St. Gallen, Orisons, Valais, Neuchatel, Inner Appenzell, and Basel-city. Thus each side had exactly ten votes, and two half votes, or half of the whole number of ballots. The situation remained for five years without material change. Every year the dis- 470 Fresh Religious Disputes. possessed abbots begged to have their property restored, and every year Aargau addressed the deputies with increasing earnestness in favor of its decision. Peace had fled from the councils of the Swiss, and was to be found only in the remote valleys where, " Far off the old snows, ever new, With silver edges cleft the blue, Aloft, alone, divine; The sunny meadows silent slept, Silence the sombre armies kept, The vanguard of the pine. In that thin air the birds are still, No ringdove murmurs on the hill. Nor mating cushat calls ; But gay cicales singing sprang, And waters from the forest sang The song of waterfalls." CHAPTER XXIII. THE CONVENT QUESTION. FREE CORPS EXPEDI- TIONS. [A. D. 1841 TO 1845.] THE convent question, thus left unsettled by the diet of 1841, grew to be a cause of con- stantly increasing bitterness in Switzerland. It was a struggle which could hardly be called a purely religious one, for many liberal Catholics took the part of Aargau against the convents, while many Protestants honestly believed the act of suppression to be an illegal and unsafe measure. As a general division, however, the educated peo- ple of the large cities were against the convents, while the uneducated masses, particularly the shepherds of the Waldstatten, held to them as if their own salvation depended upon them. The feeling against the convents, however, was fast gaining ground. Zurich was returning by slow steps to the path which she had left for a time and an address from Aargau, calling upon the Protestant 473 474 Fresh Religious .Disputes. Vorort for the help and sympathy which were due from her had immense effect. Great meetings were held to show the feelings of the people, and in May, 1842, a liberal government was once more elected at Zurich. Lucerne, on the contrary, at the beginning of 1843, became Vorort for the year, and gave her whole influence towards the advancement of the Catholic cause. People of all parties saw great significance in the return of the nuncio to Lu- cerne, after his seven years' absence in Schwyz. He had scarcely arrived before the state council ordered Aargau to annul the previous sales of conyent property, an order which Aargau promptly refused to obey. The Vorort then issued a circu- lar to all the cantons, requesting them to let the question be settled in the diet. The diet assem- bled, and both parties waited in breathless sus- pense. It was known that St. Gallon's vote could give the majority to the liberals, but St. Gallon's vote was undecided. Aargau made one more con- cession, and added Hermetschwyl to the other convents which were to be retained. This de- cided St. Gallen, and her deputy voted at once for the suppression, which became an accomplished fact. The Catholic cantons were beaten, but they A Sonderbund. 477 could not make up their minds to remain so. Lu- cerne, with the three old cantons, Zug, and Frei- burg, refused to allow the cantons to mend the worn-out old work of 1815. Within a month from the diet's decision, they joined, at the baths of Rothen, in the Sonderbund, a separate league, which was designed to be a nineteenth-century edition of the golden league of Borromeo. Lu- cerne was placed at the head of these six Catholic cantons, with power to raise troops, and to declare war, at her own discretion. This meeting, and all that related to the league, were kept secret for some months, until a meeting at Lucerne the next year made it public. The Sonderbund proceeded in its work with a zeal and activity, which betrayed the origin of its excellent discipline ; the secret of perfect organi- zation known to the followers of Loyola. Its at- tempts to win over St. Gallen and Thurgau were unsuccessful, but its triumph was great in propor- tion, when it at last took possession of Valais. Valais, with its famous mountain passes, is to the traveller one of the most interesting cantons of Switzerland. Nature there is not only on the largest scale, but has also the unfailing charm of wonderful variety. " There you have the fervent 478 Fresh Religious Disputes. warmth of Italy side by side with the eternal frost of the polar regions ; you look up from the midst of beautiful fertile valleys, and your eye rests upon numb, menacing, cloud-enveloped mountains, round whose awful peaks the larnmergeier circles, as he watches for his prey ; you find the ardent vine and the oriental peach growing side by side with miserable firs and larches ; and you may even find all the four seasons of the year prevailing at once within the limits of a single parish The canton is inhabited by two distinct races, though it is all contained in one large valley, and is watered by the same river ; and while in the eastern and more mountainous parts, speech, man- ners, and customs have preserved their German vigor and purity, in the west, where the land is flatter, the people are much afflicted with cretinism, and speak a corrupt French dialect." In spite of its lofty position, Valais, from the number of its mountain passes, lies open to the world, and it is these passes, which have made it always the coveted possession of its neighbors. There is the Monte Cervino, or Matterjoch, the Grimsel and the Gemmi, and the Simplon whose road, lying among the clouds is still lower than any other of the Valais passes. There, too, is the St. Bernard. 479 great St. Bernard, the name that carries with it the blessing of grateful travellers. A better place for calling up the ghosts of the past, than this moun- tain road can scarcely be found. There are the Roman priests, who sacrificed to Jupiter in the temple on its summit, and the Roman soldiers who garrisoned the castle near by. Burgundians and Lombards have their little day and pass on ; and the wild Saracens, who threw up earthworks, and allowed travellers to pass only on payment of a heavy toll. Then, centuries later, the mountain comes to have a happier reputation. " Among them all None can with this compare, the dangerous seat Of generous active virtue." No longer guarded by Saracen robbers, the pass became famous from the house of refuge, which, founded by Bernard, the archbishop of Aosta, grew into the monastery which bears his name. In this monastery were always to be found the trained servants of compassion, who cared alike for the lives of the just and the unjust, the good and the evil. The watch of the St. Bernard monks is unresting, The brightest sunshine never cheats them into forgetfulness of the storm which 480 Fresh Religious Disputes. is always near, and in bad weather the whole es- tablishment of monks, helpers, and dogs goes out to search for the helpless travellers. It is no wonder that their dogs take the place of faithful friends, who share all their labors and dangers. During the severe winter of 1830, both packs had to be taken out, and nearly all perished, and the names of Barry and Bruno are kept with those of de- parted archbishops and monks. But there come hours of rest and comfort to man and dog, when, on calm nights, they gather about the fire of blaz- ing logs, and enjoy the pleasant warmth that is such a contrast to the cold and toil into which they may be called at any moment. " While the wizard flame is sparkling, The memorial shadows darkling, Swim the wall in strange mutation, Till the marvelling contemplation Feeds its wonder to repletion, With each fire-light apparition. O'er a line of serried lances, How the blazing banner dances, While red pennons rise and fall Over ancient Hannibal. Lo, beneath a moon of fire, Where the meteor sparks stream by her, There I see the brotherhood. Still they fall away, and, lo! Other phantoms come and go, Other banners wing the air, Young Switzerland. 483 And the countless bayonets' glare, While around the steep way stir, Armies of the conqueror; And the slow mule toiling on, Bears the world's Napoleon." Since the time of Napoleon's downfall, and Valais' incorporation with Switzerland, it had re- mained in a state of inaction, broken only by occa- sional demands for independence from a few small villages. In 1843, however, two laws of a more liberal nature were proposed ; one for the improve- ment of general education, and one requiring the clergy to contribute in case of war. The Jesuit missions opposed both, and the people, always sub- ject to their influence, rejected them at once. The ecclesiastical leaders, not contented with this victory, turned all their efforts towards putting down the society of " Young Switzerland, which had been a grievous trial to them for some years past. Its members were practically excommuni- cated, and the reading of a journal, printed by the society, called the " Echo of the Alps," was for- bidden from every pulpit. The "young Swiss," in return, destroyed the office of the "Simplon Zeitung " which was the organ of the clergy. The elections at the end of the year put the ex- treme church party into office, and the citizens of Valais were soon in arms against each other. 484 Free- Corps Expeditions. Blood was first shed at Berrossaz on the 1st of May, 1844, and on the 20th, a force of young Swiss fell into an ambush prepared for them by their enemies, on the road between St. Maurice and Martigny. Thirty of the liberals were killed by shots fired from behind rocks and trees, or from the covered bridge across the Trient. The others escaped over the marshy plain, swam the Rhone, and reached their homes. The leaders of the liberals in lower Valais were forced to fly, and the Jesuits ruled everywhere. All schools were in their hands, and the citizens who professed the reformed faith were no longer allowed to worship even in private. The prebendary of Rivaz had de- clared that the canton should be first Catholic, and then Swiss, and the event seemed to have sur- passed his hopes. Valais became the seventh can- ton of the Sonderbund, and a peace, which the Protestants called the "peace of death" prevailed in her borders. The news of the fighting on the Trient soon spread through the country, and thousands of voices were raised against the Catholic leaders. Aargau took the lead in the expression of this feeling. Augustin Keller at once moved for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Switzerland. As he had spoken against the religious houses as the Jesuits as Teachers. 485 source of plots and conspiracies, so he denounced the members of that order which he believed had come not to bring peace, but a sword. Valais, Freiburg, and Schwyz were already subject to it, and Lucerne was ready, also, to come under its do- minion. It was time, he thought, for the Protes- tants to be up and doing. The great council of Aargau adopted his motion, and sent a circular letter on the subject to the other cantons. When the proposition came before the diet it was voted down, Basel-country alone joining with Aargau. This decision gave Lucerne courage to adopt the course on which she had already resolved, and to invite the Jesuits to her city. They were given the instruction of the youth of Lucerne, in the sciences, those sciences, to which they were al- ways opposed, and grants of property and privi- leges were made to them. By a large party in Lucerne they were looked upon as the saviors of the persecuted Catholic religion. On the other hand, the arrival of the Jesuits in Lucerne roused a bitter opposition on the part of the liberals. They formed a league, known as the committee of Knutwyl, which proposed the expul- sion of the Jesuits by force. On the morning of Sunday, the 8th of December, it was found that 486 Free-Corps Expeditions. armed men had occupied the Emmen bridge, and the city gates. They assembled in force on the Miihlenplatz, also, but fled at the approach of the soldiers. They were soon reenforced to the number of seven hundred, and advanced as far as the Emmen bridge. Near the bridge a short fight took place, in which the insurgents were victors, and just afterwards were reenforced by a band from Suhrenthal. Just then their leaders became irresolute. Some, declaring that fortune favored the brave, urged an immediate advance on the town ; others, afraid of the gathering militia, re- fused to go on. The advice of the latter pre- vailed, and their- followers, having gained nothing by this demonstration, sadly took their way home. Bands of men from Aargau, from Solothurn, and from Basel-country, who had been among them, went home filled with disappointment and wrath. Lucerne, unfortunately for herself, re- fused to temper with mercy, the justice which was dealt to her offending subjects. The communes which had revolted were occupied by troops, and the liberals everywhere hunted down. The inno- cent were imprisoned with the guilty, and their property confiscated without distinction. It was a hard winter in the canton, and many people fled The Jesuits. 487 from their homes, to take refuge in Berne or Aar- gau. In the neighboring cantons meetings were held in the open fields, to which the exiles from Lucerne came begging for help, and exciting gen- eral sympathy by their wretched appearance. Such were the results of the first free-corps expedition. In spite of its want of success, the Swiss were now calling loudly for the expulsion of the Jesuits. Petitions to this effect were sent to nearly all the cantons, and a new diet was called, to meet the emergency. In this diet Aargau and Basel-country no longer stood alone, but nine other cantons and one-half voted for the expulsion. Still the neces- sary majority could not be obtained, and even a request to Lucerne for milder treatment of her prisoners could not be agreed upon. The raising of free-corps was forbidden, and the deputies of the Sonderbund cantons returned well pleased. Not- withstanding the diet, free-corps were constantly raised and equipped, and Lucerne prepared to meet a second attack. General Sonnenberg, the best soldier of the canton, was recalled from the service of the king of Naples ; the land-wehr was constantly drilled, and help asked from the Wald- statten and Zng in case of need. The need soon came. The governments of 488 Free-Corps Expeditions. Berne, Aargau, and Basel-country found it impos- sible to stay the tide of popular feeling, which they secretly approved. The cannon were taken from the arsenals under their very eyes, and on the 30th of March, in military pomp, with banners flying and drums beating, the free-corps marched from Zofingen towards Lucerne. Among their leaders was Dr. Robert Steiger, who had already been in prison for the part he had taken in the first expe- dition. Their vanguard first met the regular troops of Lucerne near Hellbuhl. Here they had a slight skirmish in which the free-corps drove their oppo- nents back at the first volley. At the same time, it was noticed as a bad omen that not a single Lucerner joined their ranks. Their experience of December was too fresh in their memory. On reaching the Emmen, the forces divided. The smaller part of them was attacked from a masked battery near Rothen, and retreated to Hellbuhl. The larger body, after a severe fight, stormed a bridge near Thorenberg and occupied that night, a spur of the mountain above the city. Sorinen- berg did not dare attack them there, and the council prepared for flight. But at the moment that all was going well Cruel Distress. 489 with them, the free-corps leaders were seized with an indescribable fright. Tired and hungry, with no one to keep them to their duty, the companies left what they had secured without striking another blow. Those who were at Hellbuhl began their retreat in good order, and reached Zofingen the next day. The main body, beaten by fate alone, melted away suddenly, and fled in a dis- orderly mob, dragging their cannon with them. At Malters, they were fired upon from every house-window, and their flight soon became a wild confusion. Starving and lost, they wandered in the woods and on the mountains, cut down by the landsturm, who hunted them like wild beasts, some were tied with ropes, and marched in gangs to Lucerne. Of four thousand who had started out the day before not one-half returned. Two hundred had been killed, and over eighteen hundred made prisoners. There was no prison in Lucerne large enough to contain them, and they were shut up in the Franciscan and Jesuit churches. If Lucerne had not been inclined to mercy before, it was hardly likely that she would be now, when she was in the anger following a panic. The number of prisoners became oppres- sive to the city, however, and they were ransomed 490 Free-Corps Expeditions. for four hundred and fifty thousand francs. In the last days of April, they returned to their homes. The wrath of the Lucerne government, which had been appeased by the money of the outside invaders, now fell upon the citizens of the canton who were suspected of having helped on, or sympathized with the expedition. Examining- judge Ammann of Thurgau, the Jeffreys of Swit- zerland, made his name execrated b}' the unhappy people whom he prosecuted, fined, and imprisoned. The triumph of Lucerne was stained by the harsh measures taken against poor people, who were arrested without any real suspicion against them, but simply to gratify the personal enmity of those in power. While they groaned under this oppres- sion, the triumphal entry of the Jesuit fathers, de- layed until now, took place on the 29th of May, and added to the bitterness of their cup. The only piece of good news which came to lighten their darkness, was the tidings of Robert Steiger's escape. He had been again taken pris- oner in the second expedition, and had been con- demned to be shot. At the intercession of Zurich, of the bishops of Freiburg and Solothurn, and even of foreign ambassadors, his sentence had been commuted to imprisonment for life in a Sar- Steiger's Escape. 491 dinian fortress. Before it could be carried out, three land jagers contrived his escape from the Kessel tower, and brought him in safety to Zurich. About the same time the liberal cause received a blow in the murder of Joseph Leu, a peasant of Lucerne, who by his fanatical zeal for the Jesuits, had raised himself to the height of a popular leader. This man was now found shot in his bed. In those times nice distinctions were not drawn. The whole liberal party was held responsible for Leu's death, and his name thenceforward was placed on the roll of martyrs to whose grave pious souls made frequent pilgrimages. CHAPTER XXIV. THE SONDERBUND WAR. [A. D. 1847.] THE conflict between the Sonderbund and the confederacy was now fast approaching. The seven cantoris drew closer together, and their actions spoke plainly of the intentions which they had not yet publicly announced. Throughout these cantons the Jesuits held missions, and roused the superstitious zeal of their people, while at the same time, military preparations went quickly on. It was afterwards discovered that the plans of the Sonderbund included the partition of Aargau, Berne, and Zurich, and the rule of Switzerland from the Propaganda. At last the great council of Freiburg openly discussed the existence of the league, and the canton's connection with it ; and a conspiracy against the unity of Switzerland was freely avowed. It was not at all likely that the confederacy would submit to this dismemberment. The reso- 492 An Outbreak at Geneva. 495 lution of the Protestant cantons had been shown at the time of the return of the free-corps from Lucerne. The avoyer Neuhaus, of Berne, who had proceeded against some of their leaders, fell from the extreme height of popularity to political death. In Vaud the same feeling of distrust of clerical influence which had been the foundation of the free-corps, had led to an open contest be- tween church and state, in which one hundred and fifty-three clergymen lost their benefices. The temper of the Swiss being such, no sooner had Freiburg officially revealed the plot which had been for some time an open secret, than Zurich, the Vorort of 1846, sent to question Lucerne upon the subject. At the same time she ordered all the cantons to give their deputies full instructions re- garding it. When the diet came together, a majority against the Souderbund could not at first be obtained. The deputy of Geneva showed his inclination towards the Sonderbund so plainly that the wrath of the city of Calvin broke out against him. After a sharp war of words, and a bloody fight of three hours, on the afternoon of the 7th of Sep- tember, the city installed a provisional government headed by Jacques Fazy, aiil joined the liberal 496 The Sonderbund War. cantons on the Jesuit and Sonderbund questions. The same thing was tried also in Freiburg, but without the success of Geneva. St. Gallen, how- ever, was gained for the confederacy this year. The priest party was strong in that canton of mixed religions, but it was the Catholic district of Gaster, whose liberal votes turned the day, and put St. Gallen on the side of union. The acces- sion of Geneva and St. Gallen gave the party the majority in the next diet. Switzerland had suffered for the two previous years from hard winters and bad harvests ; but the suf- ferings of the people did not incline them to peace. In the summer of 1847, Lucerne and her co-lea- guers prepared for war more vigorously than ever. Supplies of war-material were collected in France and Austria, work went on briskly upon the forti- fications of the Sonderbund frontier ; their regular soldiers, and reserve were drilled and disciplined, and Ulric of Salis-Soglio was offered the command of their army. If the meaning of these prepara- tions were asked, the answer was always ready : " to repel another free-corps attack." The free- corps adversary was rather of the windmill order, but it answered the purpose of the moment. The Sonderbund had no thoughts of failure. A New Diet. 497 The league counted on the divisions of the union cantons, and on their want of spirit ; it considered its own people invincible, and relied also upon for- eign intervention, a hope which proved fruitless indeed. France and Austria were willing enough to sell their arms, but to go to war themselves for the sake of breaking up the confederacy was quite another tiling. So though the French minister, Bois Le Comte, went up and down the country to help sow the seeds of mischief, the real burden of the war fell upon the avoyer Siegwart, who, himself a foreigner, was generously willing to stake his adopted country's existence on the chance of war. Early in July, the new diet opened at Berne. The liberal cantons were twelve and two halves in number. Berne, the Vorort; Zurich, Glarus, Schaffhausen, Orisons, Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino, Vaud, Geneva, St. Gallen, and Solothurn, to- gether with Basel-country, and Appenzell-Outer- Rhodes, agreed at the first sitting that their coun- try should not be torn to pieces. The Sonderbund fought against this decision, and the neutral can- tons, Neuchatel, Basel-city, and Appenzell-Inner- Rhodes, weakly strove to mediate. The decree was passed which declared the Sonderbund illegal, 498 The Sonderbund War. and dissolved from the 20th of July. Following this decree, a quantity of arms sent by Austria to the Waldstatten was seized and confiscated in Ticino, and the Sonderbund was ordered to stop all military preparations. On the proposition of Geneva, all Swiss staff-officers who should continue in the service of the Sonderbund were to have their names struck off the army list. The cantons, which had admitted the Jesuits, were requested to dismiss them, and the rest of the confederacy was forbidden to receive them. These prompt meas- ures having been taken, the diet adjourned for six weeks. The Waldstatten stood by the course they had adopted with a tenacity worthy of a better cause. They invoked the spirit of their forefathers of Morgarten, and compared the present action of the government with the tyranny of Austria five centuries before. The other cantons did the same. Zug alone slightly wavered in her course, and at Lucerne a few men were found who declared that there was no real cause for breaking the old bund, but their voices were drowned in the tumult of the moment, and these friends of union were obliged to hide themselves from the popular fury. Meanwhile, one after another of the liberal can- A Call for Troops. 501 tons confirmed the action of the diet ; but, still loth to shed their brothers' blood, agreed that con- ciliation should be tried once more. The diet met again on the 18th of October, and, two days later, called upon the seven cantons to dissolve their separate league, promising that all the rights in- herited from their forefathers should remain un- touched. This last effort failed, as former ones had, before the obstinacy of the Sonderbund; and the diet was forced to take more active measures. A call was issued for troops, to the number of fifty thousand, and Dufour, of Geneva, was appointed commander-iii-chief, with Frey-Her- ose, of Aargau, as chief of staff. The deputies of the seven cantons who wished this war to be one- sided, now protested, but the diet stood firm. Then Bernard Meyer, of Lucerne, with the other Sonderbund deputies, announced that the time for their departure had come. They solemnly threw on the diet the responsibility for what might fol- low, and left the hall of session and the city of Berne on the 29th of October. Six days later a decree was passed, to dissolve the Sonderbund by force of arms. Dufour's force was raised at once, the cantons arming with the greatest alacrity, and even the neutral Basel-city 502 The Sonderbund War. sending a battery to the confederate army. Only Inner Appenzell and Neuchatel still called them- selves neutral, Neuchatel proving her neutrality by allowing a quantity of French arms intended for Freiburg to pass through her territory. These arms were seized and taken into Vaud, while a party of Vaudeis took the steamboat, which had brought them, to cruise with upon the lake and prevent such expeditions for the future. The con- federate army now grew rapidly to the number of ninety thousand, with two hundred and sixty pieces of artillery. The quickness with which this was accomplished, the good discipline and en- thusiasm of the troops, surprised even the Swiss government, and made a deep impression upon the foreigners who looked on. The Sonderbund force was also ready. Foreign officers volunteered to join them, and their cause "spas even honored by the presence of .an Austrian prince, one of the house against which they had fought well in earlier days. The papal nuncio himself blessed their banners, and chaplains dis- tributed amulets among the soldiers to protect them from shot and sabre. Dufour still delayed his attack for a few days ; he was in no haste to begin the work of bloodshed. An order to his Jf'reiburg Attacked. 503 troops charged them with the protection of all non-combatants, including the priests. He grad- ually surrounded the seven cantons with a cordon of troops, and the pickets of the opposite sides kept up a good feeling by handing each other their drinking-flasks across the lines. At length Dufour started on a march toward Freiburg, and the Son- el erbund immediately attacked the comparatively unprotected Aargau. Two different expeditions set out for the purpose, one commanded by Salis- Soglio himself, and one by Colonel Elgger. Both were foiled by the courage and energy of the Aargau landwehr. Salis-Soglio was beaten back in crossing a bridge over the Reuss at Lunnern, by a force which he outnumbered three to one, and Elgger had the same fate at Gettwyl. Ho had surprised two companies who were eating their mid-day meal there, and who, inspired by dinner and patriotism, met his attack with such ferocity that he and his men retreated in disorder to Hitz- hircherthal. Two days before this, on the 10th of November, the confederates occupied the suburbs of Freiburg, which surrendered on the 14th, Freiburg with- drawing at the same time from the league. As soon as the Freiburg troops heard of the surrender, 504 The Sunderbund War. they raised a cry of treason and broke up in con- fusion. The Jesuit priests escaped at once, but the landsturm vented its wrath by injuring, as much as possible, the palace which they had in- habited. The magistrates had also fled, and a new government was quickly formed, which banished the Jesuits forever from the canton. Immediately upon the fall of Freiburg, Dufour's army marched towards Lucerne and the Ur- can- tons. The Sonderbund had just obtained a small advantage, the men of Uri and Valais having beaten the people of Ticino in a fight at the St. Gothard pass. Notwithstanding this success their only one during the war opinion in Lu- cerne was very much divided and many people longed for the end of the struggle. The columns of the confederates were closing in on all sides of the Sonderbund territory, which, -with the excep- tion of that of the reluctant member, Valais, lay close about the Lake of Lucerne. Zug had never gone heart and soul with the league, and now that she saw her city threatened, she sent to Dufour in Aargau to surrender and to declare her withdrawal from the Sonderbund. The ScThwyz troops that were in Zug went back as fast as they could to their own canton, which now needed all her means A Terrible Battle. 507 of defence. The 23d of November decided the fate of the Sonderbund. One division of the confederates met the Wald- statten troops near the Meyerskappel, where they had a guard posted on rising ground. The moun- taineers told their beads, and sounded their war- cries, to which their enemies replied with loud cheers. Both sides fought well, but the Wald- statten gradually gave way before the confeder- ates' repeated charges. They retreated, but formed again on the Kiemenberg, whence they were dis- lodged after more hard fighting, and Dufour's troops took possession of the heights. Ziegler's division of the confederate army had had a hot fight on the same morning on the other side of the Rothenberg, and had driven the Son- derbunders as far as Gislikon, the key of Lucerne, whose heavy guns commanded the river Reuss. There the battle was long and terrible, and it was not until late in the afternoon, that Salis-Soglio, beaten and wounded, gave way before Zeigler's men. The confederates rushed into the abandoned fortifications, but the men of Unterwalden still fought on, near St. Michael's chapel until dark, when they too were forced to retreat. A general, confused fight, on the road to Lucerne, ensued. 508 The Sonderlund War. The avoyer Siegwart waited in the city, receiving the bad news, the weary troops, covered with dust and blood, and the wagons full of wounded and dead that arrived every moment. He had prepared for this event. A steamboat was ready which took him and his colleagues across the lake to Uri that very night. With him went the nuns of Eschenbach and Mariahilf, and the Jesuits, at- tended by a guard of twenty jagers. They took also a store of grain, and the seals and treasures of the canton. Salis-Soglio also escaped, and the city council sent messengers to negotiate with Dufour. The general would only accept an un- conditional surrender to which the Lucerne gov- ernment agreed. On the next evening the victors entered the city, marching between buildings dec- orated with the confederate flags, amidst the cheers of the people. They had been joined by two fresh divisions, one of Bernese, who had fought their way step by step from Entlibuch, and reached the city at the same time, with the other troops. The Waldstatten and Valais soon gave up also. Unterwalden capitulated on the 25th and Schwyz and Uri on the next day. It was in vain that their leaders called upon them to make one more effort ; the last stand had no attraction for them. OLD WOMAN FKOM Al'PKSZELL. Unity Restored. 509 The chiefs of the Sonderbund saw that it was hopeless, and escaped by the Furka pass into Va- lais, and then into Piedmont. Valais no longer tried to hold out in a struggle into which she had been unwillingly dragged. On the 29th of No- vember her government asked for an agreement, and received the confederate troops that soon ap- peared, with every demonstration of joy. Thus in the course of exactly one month from the departure of the Sonderbund deputies from Berne, the league had collapsed, and was seen no more. At the eleventh hour the French envoy offered the seven cantons the help of his govern- ment, but the offer came too late. The fall of the Sonderbund had been too severe for it to rise again. Siegwart and his colleagues had escaped beyond the frontier, and Switzerland was free to rejoice in restored unity. CHAPTER XXV. UNION RESTORED. GENERAL IMPROVEMENT. [A. D. 1847 TO 1859.] THE war was ended, but there remained some accounts to be settled with the Sonderbund cantons. The confederacy demanded from them five million Swiss francs as indemnity for the war expenses, and the armed occupation of the lately rebellious districts was to continue until the first instalment of this debt should have been paid. The provisional governments that had been formed in these cantons found the greatest difficulty in raising their proportion of the sum, and in Lu- cerne, the object was effected only by confiscating the estates of those councillors who had been fore- most in provoking the war. So great was the re- action of the warlike spirit of Lucerne, that in April, 1848, the convents in the canton were all suppressed in order that their property might fall to the state. No one was left to defend the con- 510 Impoverishment. 511 vents, for their natural protectors, the Jesuits, were formally banished from Switzerland and were waiting, as they have waited ever since, for an opportunity to regain their lost foothold in the country. In Freiburg, which was still more impoverished than Lucerne, it was even harder to raise the need- ful money, and the people's necessities increased their bitterness against those of their council who had voted for the Sonderbund. In Valais, the in- dignation was great against the church party who had preached the unsuccessful crusade. The monks of St. Bernard were so hard pressed that the}' packed up their property, and carried it off to Sardinia, to wait there for better times. The convent of St. Maurice was also one of the first to suffer in fulfilling the demands of the diet. St. Maurice is one of the oldest and most interesting foundations in Switzerland. It was established in the fifth century by Sigismund of Burgundy, who brought to it the precious relics from which it takes it name, the bones of St. Maurice and his companions. Those martyrs belonged to a Roman legion, of which the saint was the commander, which perished by the order of Maximin, be- cause it refused to fight against Christians, or sac- 512 Union Restored. rifice to Jupiter. From the time of their death in 302, their names were held sacred by the church, which rejoiced when their bones were removed from the catacombs, by Sigismund. The convent grew until it became the richest on this side of the Alps, and could boast five hundred monks, who kept the state of princes. The glory of the monastery has departed ; with the town below, it has been burned down no less than nine times, and all that now remains of it is a thirteenth-cen- tury tower and a few gloomy buildings of later date. It had been of momentary importance in helping to draw Valais into the pitfall of the Son- derbund, and in 1848 suffered terribly in conse- quence. Nor was the so-called neutrality of Neuchatel and Inner Appenzell accepted as an excuse for their neglect of the fatherland's claims in the hour of danger. They were made to pay a heavy fine, and thenceforth probably rated the privileges of neutrality at a lower value. All honor was paid to those who had responded so quickly and heartily to the call of the diet. For a time the returning soldiers were heroes, even in their own canton and commune, and monu- ments were raised in memory of those who had RUSTIC BALL. BRIEXZ. Revision of the Bund. 515 fallen. The liberals of Germany, France, and Italy, sent congratulations, and sums of money for the wounded, while Dufour's name was for the moment in every one's mouth. This short war, on so small a scale, was well understood and propor- tionally disliked at Vienna and at Rome, as being an important victory for liberal principles. Aus- tria offered a refuge to the fugitive leaguers and Jesuits. Pius IX. attacked the victors in a bit- ter strain, and in the French Chambers, Monta- lembert, the best and purest of the French Ultra- montanes, used his most moving eloquence against the Swiss government. When the diet began the task of revising their old bond with the view of making the central power stronger than before, the great powers protested against any change. They insisted that as they had guaranteed the ar- rangement of 1815, it must remain unchanged, save by their consent. To this the diet replied with the spirit which Switzerland has always shown when attacked from without, that " a free people should frame its own laws, and that the Swiss were vassals of no foreign power." They at once acted upon their declaration, by appoint- ing a commission of fourteen of the most distin- guished deputies, who entered upon their work of 516 Union Restored. revision on the 16th of February. By that time the great powers were too busy at home for any further interference. Louis Philippe had been driven into exile for the third time in his adventurous life, and a French republic again replaced the monarchy. While the ex-king and his family were flying in disguise, and reaching England through hair- breadth escapes, the revolutionary spirit was ram- pant once more in Italy and Germany, and kings made concessions to their subjects with trembling eagerness, in order to keep their kingdoms and their lives. Every mail brought news of the stir- ring events which kept them from observing the work of a few quiet men in a little republic. And, nevertheless, the spirit of 1848 worked a great change in one member of the Swiss confederation. Neuchatel refused to remain any longer the absurd compound of principality and canton which she had been since 1815. An insurrection which began at Chaux-les-Fonds, in February, for the rescue of some prisoners of known Swiss tenden- cies, was successful, and crowds of people called upon the council of their commune to abdicate in consequence. When it refused to destroy its own existence, the council hall was taken possession of A Revolution. 519 by the mob, and the white cross of Schwyz raised in place of the Prussian eagle. At the same time the citizens of Loch and the valleys of Travers and Les Brunet rose also. The state council of Neuchatel was frightened into offering proposals for an accommodation, but nothing short of liberty would now satisfy the people. The government resigned, and, on the evening of the 1st of March, eighteen hundred republicans took the city by a bloodless assault. They declared the canton to be independent of Prussia, and their decision was recognized by all Switzerland. Berne, the Vorort, replied to the protest of the Prussian envoy, Von Sydow, that the canton had entered the confeder- acy with equal rights, and that the confederacy re- fused to interfere. By the end of April, Neuchatel had given a republican constitution to her people, which was accepted by them. The royalists of the canton looked on in silence, biding their time for a return to the kingly rule that they loved, and for the present took no part in the poli- tics of Neuchatel. Swiss liberality which is generally joined to com- mon sense, though it had led them to defend Neu- chatel as one of the bund for the last thirty years, did not make them yield to the temptation held 520 Union Restored. out to them by Charles Albert, of Sardinia, to join him in encouraging the Lombard insurrection against Austria. The diet declared its purpose to adhere to its true policy of armed neutrality in the disturbances of Europe. Small parties of adven- turers only, went across the Alps to seek their for- tune 011 the Lombard plains, like their ancestors of the sixteenth century, but they found more hard knocks than glory, and soon returned as thoroughly neutral as the government of Berne. During all the commotions of Europe in this stormy spring, the revising committee quietly fin- ished its work, which is known as the new bond of confederation. By it the central authority was decidedly strengthened. There were to be in the city of Berne, which was the capital for the future, two councils to make the laws for the nation, corresponding to our Senate and House of Repre- sentatives. One was the diet of deputies, con- sisting of two from each canton, and one from each of the half-cantons, so that in this assembly Uri and Zug were of equal importance with Berne and Zurich. The other body was that of the national council, whose members were deputies chosen in proportion to the number of the citizens of every canton, one to every twenty thousand. An execu- STREET IX SCHAFFHAUSEN. The New Constitution. 523 tive council of seven members was to be chosen by the federal assembly. Liberty of worship was allowed to every form of Christianity, but Jews were still considered beyond the line where tolera- tion ended. By the twentieth article, the army was increased, for it demanded that all Swiss boys should have military instruction, and the Swiss flag was substituted for the separate cantonal ban- ners. The twenty-first article allowed the general government to help in the public works under- taken by single cantons, and the twenty-second gave it a right to establish a polytechnic school, and a university of Switzerland. On the loth of May, this revised pact was sub- mitted to the diet, which discussed it until the 27th of June. Then it was sent to the cantons for approval. Thirteen whole cantons and Outer- Appenzell immediately accepted it, by overwhelm- ing majorities ; during the month of August, three more ratified it, and though the Waldstatten, Zug, Valais, and Inner-Appenzell voted against it, they formed altogether such a small minority, that, on the 12th of September, the diet declared the new bond to be in force. The people gave themselves up to rejoicing, and bonfires were lighted on all the 524 Union Restored. mountains, from the Dt>le to the Santis, announcing the completion of the work. From that time internal improvements devel- oped quickly in Switzerland. The monetary sys- tem was improved in 1850, and uniform weights and measures adopted in 1851, an immense ad- vantage to a country where they had varied every few miles, with the boundaries of the can- tons. The question of the " heimathlosen," which had grown to the proportions of the tramp evil in our days and country, was disposed of, and the troublesome variety of tolls was lessened. The polytechnic school was established in 1855, and in the same year a great impulse was given to the construction of the railways, which now cover the land with their interlacing roads, and mount into regions which were thought accessible only by the chamois and wild goat. These improvements were crowned by the generous spirit of the diet of 1862, which remitted the last instalments of the indemnity due from the rebellious cantons of 1847. This piece of magnanimity decided upon at the moment that the deputies voted money for making good roads through the Waldstatten, went far to blot out the memory of the civil war. In fact, at this period perfect tranquillity reigned in G-eneva. 527 the former Sonderbund cantons, with the one ex- ception of Freiburg, where discontent was con- stantly fostered by the bishop Merrill ey. He went so far in his efforts against the suppression of the convents that he was at last arrested, and confined for a few months in the castle of Chillon. Though Freiburg has never ceased hoping for the Jesuits' return, she has since then been contented with more unobtrusive attempts to bring about her desire. During this period, Geneva had acquired a set- tled liberal government under the leadership of Jacques Fazy. Since the movement of 1847, which upset the old aristocratic constitution, every Genevese who had reached the age of twenty-one had a right to vote for the members of the Grand Council, and felt that he had something to do with the ruling of his city, the power that had been for so long in the hands of a few favored families. During Fazy's term of office, two very popular measures were carried out, the extension of the city by the pulling down of its old ram- parts, and the protection granted to Roman Catho- lics in the exercise of their religion. The council had, indeed, so long ago as the time when Calviii 528 Union Restored. was only lately dead, and when the spell of his in- fluence was still strong upon them, proposed to supply the French envoy with a coach in which to go beyond the city to hear mass; but that had been a privilege thought necessary for the souls of great personages only. From this time, how- ever, true toleration began to be understood by the council, and every Catholic was permitted to tell his beads and confess his sins, in his own church. In Ticino, that canton which was " Italian of the Italians," trouble had now arisen with the empire of Austria. An insurrection had lately taken place at Milan, and another attempt at regi- cide had been made by Mazzini, who had lived for some time as a refugee at Lugano. In retalia- tion for the well-known sympathies of the canton, Austria chose to declare Ticino the abode of con- spirators and murderers, and to expel from Lom- bardy more than five thousand innocent people from Ticino, who were earning their living there. The indignation of all Switzerland was roused by this, and found such strong expression, that in the convention at Milan, February, 1855, their return was allowed. CASTLE OF WILDEN8TEIJT. Royalists and Republicans. 531 During the first few years after 1850, the atten- tion of the Swiss, as far as the outside world was concerned, was fixed upon the attempt of Prussia and the royalists of Neuchatel, to regain that can- ton for the Hohenzollerns. In 1848, the king of Prussia, making a virtue of necessity, had let his principality go. During the next year he had leisure to discover that his duty to the royal party there, required him to resume his authority at any convenient time, and in 1852, he affirmed his in- tentions in the protocol of London. The royalists of Neuchatel were encouraged by this to make a last effort. They arranged a meeting at Valangin where three thousand of them came together, only to find seven thousand republicans already assem- bled there. The sight was calculated to cool mon- archial zeal, and for four years they waited for a better chance. In 1856, they determined to try once more, and to embark in a war such as that of La Vende'e. An expedition was secretly prepared, which took the chateau of Neuchatel, and made the state council prisoners. The tocsin at once called out the republicans, who the next day retook the chateau without loss of life, though the royalist leaders were only with the greatest difficulty 532 Union Restored. saved from the fury of the people. The federal council showed great forbearance on this occasion. Of six hundred and sixty-seven prisoners only twenty-eight were kept, all the rest being sent home with a warning against future attempts. Prussia now tried to obtain the release of these prisoners, whose only fault had been, in her eyes, a virtue. Louis Napoleon also attempted it, prom- ising that after they should be given up, he would then intercede for the independence of Neuchatel. The Swiss government desired nothing better, but it naturally preferred that the independence should come first, and the release afterwards. The French emperor refused this, and immediately took a very threatening tone, while at the same time the occu- pation of Basel and Schaffhausen, by the Prussians, was daily expected. Yet Switzerland was not dis- mayed. As she had armed for Louis Napoleon the refugee, so she now armed against Louis Napo- leon the emperor. Berne voted unlimited supplies of men and money, and other cantons quickly followed her example. Even the thinly-settled canton of Orisons sent two thousand carabineers, and the Sonderbund cantons, forgetting their former differ- ences, made ready to fight by the side of Berne Rufst du mein Vaterland ? 535 and Aargau. On the 27th of November, the Chambers, meeting at Berne, made Dufour com- mander-in-chief, and lie took the oath amidst the wildest excitement and applause. All Switzer- land was turned into a camp, and in every village even the children sang " Rufst du mein Vater- land," while the women prepared clothes, linen, and bandages, for the wounded. The Swiss in foreign countries showed the same spirit, and while many of them returned home to fight for their country, those who could not come subscribed three hundred and thirty-two thousand francs for the cause. By January, 1857, thirty thousand men were stationed along the threatened frontier. Napoleon was warned in time by these prepara- tions. He knew the stuff that Dufour was made of, as he had known it ever since he lived in his house in 1831, and he also knew something of the Swiss character, as he had seen it at the shooting- matches of Thurgau. For the first time he became serious in his efforts for mediation, and soon accom- plished it. Kern of Thurgau, his friend of 1838, was sent to him as envoy, and Switzerland, finding him in earnest, released the prisoners. A treaty absolving Neuchatel from all allegiance to Prussia, was signed at Paris, in May, 1860. Berlin had 536 Union Restored. first asked an indemnity of two million francs, but resigned this, and the king kept only the title of Prince of Neuchatel and Valangin, a title which is as useful as that of the "King of Jerusalem," kept in official documents by the royal house of Sardinia. In this way the Neuchatel question was laid to rest. CHAPTER XXVI. THE SWISS DEFEND THEIR NEUTRALITY. SWIT- ZERLAND OF TO-DAY. [A. D. 1859 TO 1871.] NOT two years after the final settlement of the Neuchatel question, the Austro-Italian war broke out. This war, in which Napoleon III. became the ally of Victor Emajiuel, forced the Swiss to guard the neutrality of their southern frontier, and after the peace of Villa-Franca, led to another disagreement between their govern- ment and France. Louis Napoleon had fought for Italian independence, as he declared, from pure sympathy for the cause of liberty, but he also felt that he was entitled to some more tangible reward than the approval of his conscience. Savoy had been coveted by the French for ;it least three centuries. It seemed most natural to them that Savoy should be bestowed upon their emperor as a small acknowledgment of his services. On the other hand, Swiss interests AVCIV 537 538 The Swiss defend their Neutrality. utterly opposed to this annexation, which would leave Vaud and Valais at the mercy of France, Louis Napoleon well understood the art of gain- ing his point while seeming to } r ield. He at first expressed a warm feeling for Switzerland, and promised that the districts of Challais and Fan- cigny should be allowed to join the confederacy. But just a month later, he explained that Savoy itself did not want to be broken up. There was infinite discussion, and when the envoys of the great powers met at Zurich to ratify the Villa- Franca peace, the president of the Federal council strove hard to have the Savoy question settled according to Switzerland's desires. His efforts, and those of Dufour, who was sent to Paris later, were alike in vain. In vain also was the Swiss army made ready for active service, and still in vain were the publicly declared sympathies of Englishmen like Peel, Palmerston, and Russell. The emperor would not give up the point, and the Savoy vote being carefully manipulated, the people of that province were found to have ex- pressed an ardent desire to be joined to France. The annexation was an accomplished fact, and Switzerland was forced to accept it. For some years afterward the relations between France and BUYING WOOD CARVHTOS IN THE UEKXESE OBtRLAND. Jeivish Emancipation. 541 Switzerland were far from cordial, but in 1862, the restitution of the valley of Dappes to the canton of Vaud, which had been robbed of it by the first Napoleon, in 1804, went far to pacify the republic. Soon afterwards there was again a risk of misunderstanding at the time of Mazzini's attempt on the emperor's life. One of his accom- plices was from Ticino, and the whole plot had been formed upon Swiss soil, but the government of Ticino cleared itself from all suspicion of con- nivance, and Mazzini was expelled from the country for the third time since 1834. On the 28th of June, 1864, a commercial treaty was made with France, by which Switzerland gained great advantages, and it is remarkable as being the occasion of Jewish emancipation through- out the country, a measure which the most ad- vanced liberals of 1848 had not dared to propose. During the last twenty years all shades and forms of religious sects have been free to worship in their own way in the Swiss cantons. To this rule there was, in 1870, but one exception, that of the Jesuits, who were still excluded in their public and professional character, from the country, an exclusion which it was to be hoped would soon cease, though they were banished not as priests 542 The Swiss defend their Neutrality. and religious fathers, but as the constant troublers of the public peace. At this time, also, liberal Italians learned that in spite of Swiss companies having helped to put down the cause of freedom, by serving in the armies of the King of Naples and the Pope of Rome, the sympathies of the republic were with them, and in this belief, they drew nearer to Switzerland. With Germany, too, a better under- standing prevailed than had ever before been known. At the opening of the railroad of Wies- baden, friendly toasts were interchanged, and at the rifle-meeting at Frankfort, a thousand Swiss were received with great enthusiasm. Once more, within the last ten years, a cloud rose on the side of France, which threatened the safety of the Swiss republic. On the 15th of July, 1870, France declared war against Germany, and the news was received in Berne, the same evening. No country had more to fear from this war than Switzerland. The battles of these giants might be fought on her soil, even without the intention of the combatants. The elephant does not put out his foot for the purpose of crushing the ant- hill, but the ants are crushed nevertheless. The Federal council was convened at once, and lost Wacht am Rhein. 545 not a moment's time. In one hour from that time, it was agreed that the cantons should fill up their regiments, and put them in marching order as fast as they could. Later in the same evening five divisions of the Elite were ordered into the field, and their commanders and headquarters were designated. On the next afternoon, the first troops in the field, those of Aargau, were on the march to Basel. That town, it was thought, would be the point which the French would strike first, to make the crossing of the Rhine. On Sunday morning, the citizens of Basel waked to hear that the Aargau men were on their bridge, and that they were safe. As soon as their service was over, they joined the soldiers, and from Basel bridge, a thousand voices went up in the song of the " Wacht am Rhein." "Whilst yet one drop of life-blood flows, The sword shall never know repose; While yet one arm the shot can pour, The foe shall never touch thy shore. Rest, Fatherland ! for sons of thine, Shall steadfast keep the Wacht am Rhein." A commander-in-chief was next to be appointed, and there was no doubt on whom the choice would fall. Since the Sonderbund war, Dufour had filled the same place in public regard in Berne, that 546 The Swiss defend their Neutrality. Wellington enjoyed in London after Waterloo. But Dufour was now eighty-five years old, and was forced to refuse the honor which was too heavy for him to bear. Aargau, instead, provided the general in the person of Hans Herzog, who was already a colonel in the Federal army. There could not have been a better choice'. He organized his staff, established depots of arms and clothing, formed hospitals and new telegraph-stations, and had an exact estimate of the carrying power of all the railways. His preparations were all quickly and thoroughly made, and then he waited for the invaders, either French or German, to cross the frontier. But for a moment the danger rolled away Through August, battle after battle followed, with only a feAV days interval, arid every battle was a German victory. On the 18th, Gravelotte was fought, and then the armies moved off to the west and north, and Switzerland was safe. In a few days the camps were broken up, and the men went back to their homes. The real trial came in the course of the next January. A report spread quickly that Bourbaki was to make a last desperate attempt to cross the Rhine, and carry the war into Germany. It was to be a raid on a gigantic scale, for the French It