The Washington herald., 1915-09-12
Peasants Against Knights.

had grown bepond the range Of tn
spyglass on top of Rigi.
Peasants Against Knights.
But the next battlefield in Swis
history is easily to be seen some tel
miles away. where the sun CLEANS OF
| the Lake Of Sempach The -Hapsburgs
having assembled an army of mobiles
| in 1885. the Swiss burst upon then
| from a grove and took them by sur
| prise. They We're armed again will
their halberds. an odd combinat ton o.
! spear. ak and hook. which they them
selves had invented. With it they coult
thrust and chop and hook their ad
\ versaries.
| But unfortunately the handle OF
! the halberd proved to be shorter thar
! that of the Austrian lance at Sem.
pach. Unable to get in striking dis.
| tance of their enemy. the Swiss help
| lessly fell back and the battle seemed
! lost to them until suddenly the tide
turned
Legend says that Winkelreid rush.
ed upon the Austrian line and broke
1t. But some prosy souls suspect that
| the Austr!ans. in their heavy armor
really were overcome by the heat OF
| that July day. when the Swiss hal
! herds struck down Hapsburg prince
and 500 bright petals of the flower of
knighthood.
After three years the stubborn
Hapsburgs renewed the struggle. but
this time a band of 600 men on a
mountain side at Naefels only gather
ed up the missiles that lay at their
feet and with them they routed their
knightly foes. They literally stoned
5000 or 5000 Austrians from the field.
That ignominious rout was enough
even for the Hapsburgs, and after
having striven for 200 years to crush
the independence of Switzerland, they
bent their stiff necks to the inevitable.
BY that time. the expansion of the
Swiss league to the west had aroused
the jealousy Of Burgundy, and Charles
the Bold lifted his sword by the shore
of the Lake of Neuchatel, in 1914 to halt
the march Of freedom. But the below
ing of the Alpine horns as the Swiss
poured out of the Jura Mountains at
sunrise put to fight the great army Of
Burgundians. In their panic they left
behind them plane strewn with arms
and treasures. and the victors in that
almost bloodless Battle Of Grandson
gathered in by the armfuls gold and dia-
monds. silken banners and tents. rare
wines and costly garments
Charles rallied again at Morat. But
once more his forces were shamefully
iouleu, anu "nen ne nlIHSeH Hcu thC
scene Of the disaster he left 5000 or 10000
OF his troops lying dead on the hillsides.
The Malady of Militarism.
The Swiss had now compelled peace
around all their borders and taken rank
as the first warriors of Europe. But
their martial triumphs had demoralized
them and they degenerated into nation
Of mercenary soldiers who fought for
the highest bidder. The arms which had
wrested freedom from despots became
the boughten instruments Of despotism.
They were the last to defend the Bour-
bons against the French Revolution. and
the devotion Of the Swiss guards to their
paymaster, when the mob stormed Louis
XVI in the Tuileries. has been immortal
lied by the chisel Of Thorwaldsen. whose
stricken lion at Lucerne still guards the
keur de lis.
Meanwhile a sordid aristocracy arose
at home and turned Switzerland herself
into q feudal despotism. The older can-l
tons held the newer in subsection and
the country was far from being the lib