The Elk Mountain pilot., 1917-01-11
t Ten Minute Classics
| Famous Tales and Legends Told in Brief Form
by J. w. MULLER r
Copyright BY ] W.. Muller

The chain of French forts from
Verdun, now being so fercely fought
for, to Nancy, which form one COM
bined system of defense for French
Lorraine, lie in a region famous in
history and legend. None is more
thrilling than the capture of Nancy
by the Swiss. This episode and the
destruction of the BurSundian army
are a fine part of Sir Walter SCOTS
Anne of Geierstein."
Charles the Bold. ruler of Burgundy
and Flanders, duke of seven dukedoms,
count of seventeen earldoms, was at
the summit of his eminence. In his
grip he crushed the estates of Bur-
gundy and Flanders. He was invad-
ing Lorraine and already had added
to his titles that of duke of Lorraine.
boasted openly that he would nail the
hide of the old fox to n stable door.
He was bargaining with Margaret of
Anjou for the lovely kingdom of Pro-
vence, ruled by her mild old father,
Good King Rene, in exchange for
which he promised to make war in
England on the house of York and re-
establish Margaret's house of Lancas-
ter. And with all these affairs on his
hands he turned lightly, as to an ex-
cursion, to make war on the Swiss.
In vain did the duke of Oxford, who
was in his camp as Margaret's envoy,
advise him that these rough noun
taineers were bears who might well
ruin all his greater plans. He roared
with fury at the intimation that his
chivalry of Burgundy, his mailclad
mercenaries from all Europe, and his
new and wonderful fire-spitting can
non might fail to annihilate the Swiss,
who fought on foot with arrows and
mammoth, clumsy, two-handed swords.
He said to the Swiss deputation that
had come to beg for peace:
"A deputation of your most notable
persons who shall meet me on your
frontiers with halters around their
necks and their swords held by the
points, may learn from me on what
conditions we will grant peace"
"Then farewell, peace, and welcome
war;" said the undaunted Swiss dele
gates. 1--WE will meet you on our from
tiers with our naked swords, but the
hilts, not the points, shall be in our
grasp. Charles of Burgundy, we bid
you defiance. and declare war against
you In the name Of the Confederated
Cantons!"
n rntfc Nj do
Vaudemont, whose heritage was the
dukedom of Lorraine, Joined with the
Swiss. Charles laughed when he heard
it. "Qn to Neuchatel !" he said. 1--WE
will teach these beggarly peasants Il
lesson!"
At Granson, near the great lake of
Neuchatel, the beggarly peasants
caught Burgundy's army in narrow
pass and so fell on it from all sides
that by nightfall the shining host was
In mortifying flight.
The check merely ipfuriated Charles.
Before midsummer of the next year he
had ready new army of at least sixty
thousand men with one hundred and
fifty pieces of cannon. They entered
the land of the Swiss, who had called
on the Free Cities of the Rhine to help
them. AT Morat, near Berne, the Bur-
gundian cannon battered the walls
around Swiss ears; but the artillery,
novel though it was, failed to terrify
them. 1t plowed great gaps among
them, but before it could fire again
the survivors rushed in with those
clumsy five-foot swords and hewed
mailclad men down as If they were
snplings. Charles himself had to ride
for his life with the steer-horns of
Uri, which the Swiss blew as war
trumpets, braying behind him as he
fed.
Even he was stunned for time !;
but when word came to him that Fer
rand and the Swiss had dared to leave
their mountain Businesses and had
overrun Lorraine, taking the city of
Nancy, he reused hiraself and laughed
again, gleefully. "They have trapped
themselves!" he cried. 81 swear that
7 shall destroy them utterly before
two weeks have passed.
Three days before Christmas his
army sat down before Nancy in n
strong position. That night there was
great commotion in the dukes tent.
When his officers rushed in, they saw
him standing undressed, with his
sword in his hand. He roared that
strangers had been by his bedside.
The bodyguard was incredulous, for
there were many there who could
swear that they had not closed their
eyes. But he pointed to n table.
Pinned to it with dagger was parch-
ment signed with three crosses. Ev-
eryone present recognized at once
what it was. and even in that armed
camp many of them trembled, for the
parchment was a summons from the