Part 4 (1/2)

32. Having thus escaped the clutches of the governor, he made for the main road between Art and Kussnacht, and there hid himself until such a time as the bailiff should pa.s.s that way. Gessler and his attendants having, with great difficulty, effected a landing at Brunnen, proceeded toward Kussnacht. In the spot still known as ”the hollow way,” and marked by a chapel, Tell overheard the threats p.r.o.nounced against himself should he once more be caught, and, in default of his apprehension, vengeance was vowed against his family. Tell felt that the safety of himself and his wife and children, to say nothing of the duty he owed to his country, required the tyrant's death; and, seizing an arrow, he pierced Gessler to the heart.

33. The bold deed accomplished, the hero effected his escape to Stemen, where he found Werner Stauffacher preparing to march.

Immediate action was now necessary, but the original decision of the conspirators remained unchanged. Accordingly, on the morning of New Year's Day, 1308, the castle of Rostberg, in Obwalden, was taken possession of, its keeper, Berenger, of Landasberg, made prisoner, and compelled to promise that he would never again set foot within the territory of the three cantons, after which he was allowed to retire to Lucerne.

34. Stauffacher, the same morning, at the head of the men of Schwytz, destroyed the fortress of Schwanan, while Tell and the men of Uri took possession of Altorf. On the following Sunday the deputies of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden met, and renewed that fraternal league which has endured to this day.

35. In 1315 Leopold, second son of Albert, determined to punish the confederate cantons for their revolt, and accordingly marched against them at the head of a considerable army, accompanied by a numerous retinue of n.o.bles. Count Otho, of Strasberg, one of his ablest generals, crossed the Brunig with a body of four thousand men, intending to attack Upper Unterwalden. The bailiffs of Willisan, of Wodhausen, and of Lucerne meantime armed a fourth of that number to make a descent on the lower division of the same canton, while the emperor in person, at the head of his army of reserve, poured down from Egerson on Mogarten, in the country of Schwytz, ostentatiously displaying an extensive supply of rope where with to hang the chiefs of the rebels.

36. The confederates, in order to oppose this formidable invasion, occupied a position in the mountains bordering on the convent of Our Lady of the Hermits. Four hundred men of Uri, and three hundred of Unterwalden, had effected a junction with the warriors of Schwytz, who formed the princ.i.p.al force of the little army. Fifty men, banished from this latter canton, offered themselves to combat beneath their banner, intending to efface by their valor the remembrance of past faults. Early on the morning of November 15, 1315, some thousands of well-armed Austrian knights slowly ascended the hill on which the Swiss were posted, with the hope of dislodging them; the latter, however, advanced to meet their enemies, uttering the most terrific cries. The band of banished men, having precipitated large stones and fragments of rocks from the hillsides and from overhanging cliffs, rushed from behind the sheltering influence of a thick fog and threw the advancing columns into confusion. The Austrians immediately broke their ranks, and presently a complete rout, with terrible slaughter, ensued. The flower of the Austrian chivalry perished on the field of Morgarten, beneath the halberts, arrows, and iron-headed clubs of the shepherds. Leopold, himself, though he succeeded in gaining the shattered remnant of his forces, had a narrow escape, while the Swiss, animated by victory, hastened to Unterwalden, where they defeated another body of Austrians. In this instance Count Otho had as narrow an escape as the emperor.

37. After these two well-fought fields, the confederates hastened to renew their ancient alliance, which was solemnly sworn to in an a.s.sembly held at Brunnen on the eighth day of December.

38. After the battle of Morgarten one canton after another threw off the Austrian yoke, and joined the forest cantons, until nearly all Switzerland was joined in a confederacy. A later war waged by Albert proved disastrous to the Austrian cause, and ended by a further consolidation of the Swiss cantons. In 1356, seventy years after Morgarten, the Austrians made another attempt to bring the brave mountaineers into subjection. An army of nine thousand men, the best trained soldiers of the empire, under the lead of the Archduke Leopold, invaded the country. To these the confederates opposed a force of fourteen hundred. They met in a valley near the lake of Sempach. The Austrians had learned something of Swiss warfare, and knew that they stood no chance in a hand-to-hand conflict with the Swiss, and so they formed their men into squares, with a wall of bristling spears on every side. Upon this solid ma.s.s of men the Swiss could make no impression. In vain they charged with the fiery courage which had so often gained them the victory; they could find no vulnerable point in the serried columns, and it seemed that the brave mountaineers must all perish, and leave their homes again to the mercy of the Austrian soldiers. But, when almost in despair, the tide of battle was turned by the acts of a single Swiss soldier, Arnold Winkelried, of Unterwalden. He communicated his plan to his immediate neighbors, and then, rus.h.i.+ng forward, he grasped as many of the Austrian spears as he could reach; and, gathering them together, he bowed to the ground with the spears buried in his breast. Into the breach his companions rushed, and with their powerful swords they soon widened the s.p.a.ce, so that the whole Swiss force had room for action.

The Austrians were almost annihilated, Leopold himself being slain.

The poet Montgomery has given the following version of this event:

ARNOLD WINKELRIED.

39. ”Make way for liberty!” he cried; ”Make way for liberty!” and died.

40. In arms the Austrian phalanx stood, A living wall, a human wood!

A wall where every conscious stone Seemed to its kindred thousands grown; A rampart all a.s.saults to bear, Till time to dust their frames should wear!

A wood, like that enchanted grove In which with fiends Rinaldo strove, Where every silent tree possessed A spirit prisoned in its breast, Which the first stroke of coming strife Would startle into hideous life; So dense, so still, the Austrians stood, A living wall, a human wood!

Impregnable their front appears, All horrent with projected spears, Whose polished points before them s.h.i.+ne, From flank to flank, one brilliant line, Bright as the breakers' splendors run Along the billows, to the sun.

41. Opposed to these, a hovering band Contended for their native land; Peasants, whose new-found strength had broke From manly necks the ign.o.ble yoke, And forged their fetters into swords, On equal terms to fight their lords And what insurgent rage had gained, In many a mortal fray maintained!

Marshaled at morn at Freedom's call, They come to conquer or to fall, Where he who conquered, he who fell, Was deemed a dead, or living Tell!

Such virtue had that patriot breathed, So to the soil his soul bequeathed, That wheresoe'er his arrows flew, Heroes in his own likeness grew, And warriors sprang from every sod Which his awakening footstep trod.

42. And now the work of life and death Hung on the pa.s.sing of a breath; The fire of conflict burnt within, The battle trembled to begin; Yet, while the Austrians held their ground, Point for attack was nowhere found.

Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed, The unbroken line of lances blazed; That line 'twere suicide to meet, And perish at their tyrant's feet How could they rest within their graves, And leave their homes the homes of slaves?

Would they not feel their children tread With clanging chains above their head?

43. It must not! This day, this hour, Annihilates the oppressor's power; All Switzerland is in the field, She will not fly, she can not yield-- She must not fall; her better fate Here gives her an immortal date.

Few were the numbers she could boast; But every freeman was a host, And felt as though himself were he On whose sole arm hung victory!

44. It did depend on one, indeed, Behold him--Arnold Winkelried There sounds not to the tramp of fame The echo of a n.o.bler name.

Unmarked he stood amid the throng, In rumination deep and long, Till you might see, with sudden grace, The very thought come o'er his face, And by the motion of his form Antic.i.p.ate the coming storm; And by the uplifting of his brow Tell where the bolt would strike, and how.

45. But 'twas no sooner thought and done, The field was in a moment won.

46. ”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 met from side to side; He bowed among them like a tree, And thus made way for Liberty!

47. 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!