 Section 95 of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, read for LibriVox.org, the Baron of Raron and the Matze, 15th century by J. Wilson. A hundred years after the times of William Tell, the cantons that had united in a confederacy had become both strong and proud, and not at all willing to accept insults tamely. They were in possession of the Valley of Osala, but their enemies came upon the weak garrison and took it from them. These enemies had been shown the way over the mountains by a certain Baron of Raron. Moreover, he had said sneeringly, if I had been there, not a swish would have been left alive. Many were determined to avenge the wrong, but no one cared to be a leader in the matter. Then they had recourse to the ancient custom of the Matze, which is here described, the editor. A young birch was pulled up by the roots on which was fixed a human countenance, rudely carved in wood and wearing the expression of grief. Below this, in the stem of the tree, a nail was driven by each of the plotters, which symbolized a solemn engagement to persevere in their enterprise. In the night this figure commonly called a Matze was bound to a tree on a well-frequented thoroughfare. On the following morning, crowds of passing wayfarers gathered round the tree. The agitators mixed with them and thus ascertained the popular temper. As soon as they found it favorable, that is disposed for plunder and violence, a bold and well-spoken man stepped forth as master of the Matze, unbounded from the tree and set it up on an open space beside him. Questions were then addressed to the figure as, Matze, what is your pleasure? And its patron was requested to reply for it. At first he refused with well-assumed embarrassment, but at last affecting merely to comply with the will of the people he turned to the Matze. Matze, these good people are willing to help you speak. Name the man whom you are afraid of. Is it the Selenin, the Asperling, the Hengarten? Names of powerful families in the valet. The Matze stood immovable. Is it the Baron of Rara? The Matze, about its head and the master, stood beside it in a supplicating attitude. Then addressed the multitude, Brayden, you have heard what the Matze complains of. Whoever will fight for the Matze, let him hold up his hand. A majority instantly showed itself in favor of the Matze, and all law and order were suspended. The summons went through the whole land to the rescue of the Matze. The obnoxious barons, castles, and estates, as well as those of his relatives, friends and dependents, were sacked by a furious multitude. And nothing but a rapid flight could have saved the lives of those who were thus solemnly devoted to the vengeance of the people. End of section 95. This recording is in the public domain. Section 96 of Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The World Story, Volume 7. Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Edited by Eva March Tappen. Section 96. Peace or War. 1474 by Sir Walter Scott. Charles the Bold, last Duke of Burgundy, was ambitious to become master of all the lands, formerly belonging to Burgundy, that is, of Lorraine, Provence, Dauphin, and part of Switzerland. As his domain increased, he sent Peter von Hagenbach to Alsace as governor. Hagenbach was so tyrannical that the Swabian and Swiss neighbors of Alsace protested. At length and a revolt at Breisach, Hagenbach was seized and tried for many offenses. Among his judges were some of Swiss birth. This was just the excuse that Charles wanted to make war against Switzerland. The Swiss were not afraid of fighting, but just at this time their allies, the Emperor and the King of France, made peace with the Duke. The Swiss then sent messengers to the Duke to solicit peace. The following is Scott's picture of the interview. The editor. The doors of the hall were now opened to the Swiss deputies who, for their preceding hour, had been kept in attendance on the outside of the building without receiving the slightest of those attentions which among civilized nations are universally paid to the representatives of a foreign state. Indeed, their very appearance dressed in coarse gray frocks like mountain hunters or shepherds in the midst of an assembly blazing with diverse colored garments, golden silver lace, embroidery, and precious stones served to confirm the idea that they could only have come hither in the capacity of most humble petitioners. Oxford, however, who watched closely the deportment of his late fellow travelers, failed not to observe that they retained each in his own person the character of firmness and indifference which formally distinguished them. Rudolf Donner-Hughel preserved his bold and haughty look, the bannerette, the military indifference which made him look with apparent apathy on all around him. The burger of Soler was as formal and important as ever, nor did any of the three show themselves affected in the slightest degree by the splendor of the scene around them, or embarrassed by the consideration of their own comparative inferiority of appointments. But the nobo Landamen, on whom Oxford chiefly bent his attention, seemed overwhelmed with a sense of the precarious state in which his country was placed, fearing from the rude and unhonored manner in which they were received that war was unavoidable while at the same time like a good patriot, he mourned over the consequences of ruin through the freedom of his country by defeat or injury to her simplicity and virtuous indifference of wealth by the introduction of foreign luxuries and the evils attending on conquest. Well acquainted with the opinions of Arnold Biedermann, Oxford could easily explain his sadness while his comrade von Stetten, less capable of comprehending his friend's feelings, looked at him with the expression which may be seen in the countenance of a faithful dog when the creature indicates sympathy with his master's melancholy, though unable to ascertain or appreciate its cause. A look of wonder now and then glided around the splendid assembly on the part of all the Falorn group accepting Donor Hugo and the Landamen, for the indomitable pride of the one and the steady patriotism of the other could not for even an instant be diverted by external objects from their own deep and stern reflections. After a silence of nearly five minutes, the Duke spoke with the haughty and harsh manner which he might imagine belonged to his place and which certainly expressed his character. Men of burn, of schvites, or of whatever hamlet and wilderness you may represent, know that we had not honored you, rebels as you are, to the dominion of your lawful superiors with an audience in our own presence, but for the intercession of a well-esteemed friend who has sojourned among your mountains and whom you may know by the name of Phillipson, an Englishman, following the trade of a merchant and charged with certain valuable matters of traffic to our court. To his intercession, we have so far given way that instead of commanding you according to your demerits, to the gibbet and the wheel in the plaza de Mourymal, we have condescended to receive you into our own presence, sitting in our coup planière footnote, plenary court, that is, fully attended by all the members, into footnote, to hear from you such submission as you can offer for your outrageous storm of our town of La Fourette, the slaughter of many of our liegemen, and the deliberate murder of our noble knight Archibald of Hagenbach, executed in your presence and by your countenance and device. Speak, if you can, say, ought in defense of your felony and treason, either to deprecate your punishment or crave undeserved mercy. The land-dominant seemed about to answer, but Rudolph Donor-Hugo, with his characteristic boldness and hardy-hood, took the task of reply upon himself. He confronted the prod Duke with an eye unappalled and the countenance as stern as his own. We came not here, he said, to compromise our own honor or the dignity of the free people whom we represent by pleading guilty in their name or our own to crimes of which we are innocent. In when you term us rebels, you must remember that a long train of victories whose history is written in the noblest blood of Austria has restored to the Confederacy of our communities the freedom of which an unjust tyranny in vain attempted to deprive us. While Austria was a just and beneficent mistress, we served her with our lives. When she became oppressive and tyrannical, we assumed independence. If she has ought yet to claim from us the descendants of Tell, First and Stalffalker will be as ready to assert their liberties as their fathers were to gain them. Your grace, if such be your title, has no concern with any dispute that tricks us in Austria for your threats of gibbet and wheel, we are here defenseless men on whom you may work your pleasure, but we know how to die and our countrymen know how to avenge us. The fiery Duke would have replied by commanding the instant arrest and probably the immediate execution of the whole deputation, but his Chancellor availing himself of the privilege of his office rose and doff in his cap with a deep reverence to the Duke requested leave to reply to the misproud young man who had he said so greatly mistaken the purpose of his Highness's speech. Charles feeling perhaps at the moment too much irritated to form a calm decision threw himself back in his chair of state and with an impatient and angry nod gave his Chancellor permission to speak. Young man said that high officer you have mistaken the meaning of the high and mighty sovereign in whose presence you stand would ever be the lawful rights of Austria over the revolted villages which have flung off their allegiance to their native superior. We have no call to enter on that argument, but that for which Burgundy demands your answer is where for coming here in the guise and with the character of peaceful envoys on affairs touching your own communities and the rights of the Duke subjects you have raised war in our peaceful dominions, stormed a fortress, and put to death a noble knight its commander, all of them actions contrary to the law of nations and highly deserving of the punishment with which you have been justly threatened, but with which I hope our gracious sovereign will dispense if you express some sufficient reason for such outrageous insolence with an offer of due submission to his Highness's pleasure and satisfactory reparation for such a high injury. You are a priest, Graveser answered Rudolph Donner-Hugo addressing the Chancellor of Burgundy. If there be a soldier in this assembly who will vouch for a charge, I challenge him to the combat, man to man. We did not storm the garrison of La Fourette. We were admitted into the gates in a peaceful manner and were there instantly surrounded by the soldiers of the late Archibald the Hagenbach with the obvious purpose of assaulting and murdering us on our peaceful mission. I promise you there hadn't been news of more men dying than us, but an uproar broke out among the inhabitants of the town, assisted I believe by many neighbors to whom the insolence and oppression of Archibald the Hagenbach had become odious as to all who were within his reach. We rendered them no assistance, and I trust it was not expected that we should interfere in the favor of men who had stood prepared to do the worst against us, but not a pike or sword belonging to us or our attendance was dipped in Burgundian blood. Archibald the Hagenbach perished, it is true, on a scaffold, and I saw him die with pleasure under a sentence pronounced by a competent court, such as is recognized in Westphalia and its dependencies on this side of the Rhine. I'm not obliged to vindicate their proceedings, but I aver that the Duke has received full proof of his regular sentence and in fine that it was amply deserved by oppression, tyranny, and foul abuse of his authority. I will uphold against all gainsayers with the body of a man. There lies my glove, and with an action suited to the language he used the stern Swiss flung his right hand glove on the floor of the hall in the spirit of the age with the love of distinction and arms which it nourished, and perhaps with the desire of gaining the Duke's favor, there was a general motion to accept the challenge and more than six or eight gloves were hastily doffed by the young knights present, those who were more remote flinging them over the heads of the nearest, and each proclaiming his name and title as he proffered the gauge of combat. I said it all, said the daring young Swiss gathering the gauntlets as they fell clashing around him. More gentlemen, more a glove for every finger come on one at once, fair list equal judges of the field, the combat on foot and the weapons two handed swords and I will not budge for a score of you. Hold gentlemen, on your allegiance hold, said the Duke gratified at the same time, and somewhat appeased by the zeal which was displayed in his cause, moved by the strain of reckless bravery, events by the challenger with a hearty hood akin to his own, perhaps also not unwilling to display in the view of his court planier, more temperance than he had been at first capable of. Hold, I command you all, twice on door gather up these gauntlets and return them each to his owner. God and St. George forbid that we should hazard the life of even the least of our noble Burgundian gentry against such a churro as this Swiss peasant who never so much as mounted a horse and knows not a jot of nightly courtesy or the grace of chivalry. Carry your vulgar brawls elsewhere, young man, and know that on the present occasion, the plos mori mall, where you're only fitting lists and the hangman your meat antagonist, and you serves his companions whose behavior and suffering this swagger to take the lead amongst you seems to show that the laws of nature as well as of society are inverted. And that youth is preferred to age as peasants to gentry. You white bearded men, I say, is there none of you who can speak your errand in such language as it becomes a sovereign prince to listen to? God forbid, as said the land omen, stepping forward and silencing Rudolph Donner-Hughel, who was commencing an answer of defiance. God forbid, he said, noble Duke, that we should not be able to speak so as to be understood before your highness, since I trust we shall speak the language of truth, peace, and justice. Nay, should it incline your highness to listen to us the more favorably for our humility, I am willing to humble myself rather than you should shun to hear us. For my own part, I can truly say that though I have lived and by free choice have resolved to die, a husbandman and a hunter on the Alps of the Unterwald, I may claim by birth the hereditary right to speak before dukes and kings and the emperor himself. There is no one, my lord duke, in this proud assembly who derives his dissent from a nobler source than Geyerstein. We have heard of you, said the duke, men call you the peasant count. Your birth is your shame or perhaps your mother's if your father had happened to have a handsome plowman, the fitting father of one who has become a willing serf. No serf, my lord, answer the landamen but a free man who will neither oppress others nor be himself tyrannized over. My father was a noble lord, my mother a most virtuous lady, but I will not be provoked by taunt or scornful jest to refrain from stating with calmness what my country has given me in charge to say. The inhabitants of the bleak and inhospitable regions of the Alps desire mighty serf to remain at peace with all their neighbors and to enjoy the government they have chosen as best fitted to their condition and habits, leaving all other states and countries to their free will in the same respects. Especially, they desire to remain at peace and in unity with the princely house of Burgundy whose dominions approach their possessions on so many points. My lord, they desire it, they entreat it, they even consent to pray for it. We have been termed stubborn, intractable and insolent contenders of authority and headers of sedition and rebellion. In evidence of the contrary, my lord duke I, who never bent the knee but to heaven, feel no dishonor and kneeling before your highness as before a sovereign prince in the coup or planier of his dominions where he has a right to exact omics from his subjects out of duty and from strangers out of courtesy. No vain pride of mine, said the noble old man, his eyes swelling with tears as he knelt on one knee shall prevent me from personal humiliation when peace, that blessed peace, so dear to God, so inappreciably valuable to man, is in danger of being broken off. The whole assembly, even the duke himself, were affected by the noble and stately manner in which the brave old man made a genuine flexion which was obviously dictated by neither meanness nor timidity. Arise, sir, said Charles, if we have set ought which can wound your private feelings we retract it as publicly as the reproach was spoken and sit prepared to hear you as a fair meaning envoy. For that my noble lord thanks and I shall hold it a blessed day if I can find words worthy of the cause I have to plead. My lord, a schedule in your highness' hands has stated the sense of many injuries received at the hand of your highness' officers and those of Ramal, count of Savoy, your strict ally and advisor, we have a right to suppose under your highness' countenance. For count Ramal, he has already felt with whom he has to contend that we have as yet taken no measures to avenge injuries or fronts, interruptions to our commerce, from those who have availed themselves of your highness' authority to intercept our countrymen, spoil our goods, impress their persons, and even in some instances take their lives. The affray at La Faret, I convert for what I saw, had no origin or abetance from us. Nevertheless it is impossible an independent nation can suffer the repetition of such injuries and free and independent we are determined to remain or to die in defense of our rights. What then must follow unless your highness listens to the terms which I am commissioned to offer? War, a war to extermination, for so long as one of our Confederacy can wield a halberd so long, if this fatal strife once commences there will be war betwixt your powerful realms and our poor and barren states. And what can the noble Duke of Burgundy gain by such a strife? Is it wealth and plunder? Alas, my lord, there is more gold and silver on the very bridal bits of your highness' household troops than can be found in the public treasures of private hordes of our whole Confederacy. Is it fame and glory you aspire to? There is little honor to be won by a numerous army over a few scattered bands, by men clad in mail over half-armed husbandmen and shepherds of such conquest small were the glory. But if, as all Christian men believe and as it is the constant trust of my countrymen from memory of the times of our fathers, if the lord of hosts should cast the balance on behalf of the fewer numbers and worse armed party, I leave it with your highness to judge what would in that event be the diminution of worship and fame. Is it extent of vast legion and dominion your highness' desires by warring with your mountain neighbors? Know that you may, if it be God's will, gain our barren and rugged mountains. But like our ancestors of old, we will seek refuge in wilder and more distant solitudes, and when we have resisted to the last, we will starve in the icy waste of the glaciers. I, men, women, and children, we will be frozen into annihilation together, ere one free switzer will acknowledge a foreign master. The speech of the Landamen made an obvious impression on the assembly. The Duke observed it, and his hereditary obstinacy was irritated by the general disposition which he saw entertained in favor of the ambassador. This evil principle overcame some impression, which the address of the noble beaterman had not failed to make upon him. He answered with a lowering brow, interrupting the old man as he was about to continue his speech. You argue falsely, Sir Count or Sir Landamen, or by whatever name you call yourself, if you think we war on you from any hope of spoil or any desire of glory. We know as well as you can tell us that there is neither profit nor fame to be achieved by conquering you, but sovereigns to whom heaven has given the power must root out a band of robbers, though there is dishonor in measuring swords with them. And we hunt to death a herd of wolves, though their flesh is carrying and their skins are not. The Landamen shook his gray head and replied without testifying emotion, and even with something approaching to a smile, I'm an older woodsman than you, my Lord Duke, and it may be a more experienced one. The boldest, the heartiest hunter will not safely drive the wolf to his den. I have shown your highness the poor chance of gain and the great risk of loss, which even you, powerful as you are, must incur by risking a war with determined and desperate men. Let me now tell what we are willing to do to secure a sincere and lasting peace with our powerful neighbor of Burgundy. Your grace is in the act of engrossing Lorraine, and it seems probable under so vigorous and enterprising a prince, your authority may be extended to the shores of the Mediterranean. We are noble friend and sincere ally, and our mountains defended by warriors familiar with victory will be your barriers against Germany and Italy. For your sake, we will admit the count of Savoy to terms and restore to him our conquests on such conditions as your highness shall yourself judge reasonable. Of past subjects of offense on the part of your lieutenants and governors upon the frontier, we will be silent, so we have assurance of no such aggressions in future. And more, and it is my last and proudest offer, we will send three thousand of our youth to assist your highness in any war which you may engage in whether against Louis or France or the Emperor of Germany. They are a different set of men proudly and truly may I stated from the scum of Germany and Italy who formed themselves into mercenary bands of soldiers. And if heaven should decide your highness to accept our offer, there will be one core in your army which will leave their carcasses on the field, ere a man of them break their plighted trough. A swarthy but tall and handsome man wearing a corset richly engraved with arabesque work started from his seat with the air of one provoked beyond the bounds of restraint. This was the count Campo Basso, commander of Charles's Italian mercenaries, who possessed as he has been alluded to much influence over the Duke's mind, chiefly obtained by accommodating himself to his master's opinions and prejudices and placing before the Duke's specious arguments to justify him for following his own way. This lofty presence must excuse me, he said, if I speak in defense of my honor and those of my bold lances who have followed my fortunes from Italy to serve the bravest prince in Christendom, I might indeed pass over without resentment the outrageous language of this grey-haired churl whose words cannot affect a knight and a nobleman more than the yelling of a peasant's mastiff. But when I hear him propose to associate his bands of mutinous, misgoverned ruffians with your highness's troops, I must let him know that there is not a horse-boy in my ranks who would fight in such fellowship. No, even I myself, bound by a thousand ties of gratitude, could not submit to strive a breast with such comrades. I would fold up my banners and lead five thousand men to seek, not a noble master, for the world has none such but wars in which we might not be obliged to blush for our assistance. Silence, Campobasso, said the Duke, and be assured in your service, Prince, who knows your worth too well to exchange it for the untried and untrustful services of those whom we have only known as vexatious and malignant neighbors. Then addressing himself to Arnold Bederman, he said coldly and sternly, Sir Landamen, we have heard you fairly, we have heard you, although you come before us with hands, die deep in the blood of our servant, Sir Archibald de Hagenbach. For supposing he was murdered by a villainous association, which by St. George, however, while we live in rain, raised its pestilential head on this side of the Rhine, yet it is not the less undeniable and undenied that you stood by in arms and encouraged the deed the assassins performed under your countenance. Return to your mountains and be thankful that you return in life till those who sent you that I will be presently on their frontiers, a deputation of your most notable persons who meet me with halters round their necks, tortures in their left hands and their right, their swords held by the point may learn on what conditions we will grant you peace. Then farewell peace and welcome war, said the Landamen, and be its plagues and curses on the heads of those who choose blood and strife rather than peace and union. We will meet you on our frontier with our naked swords, but the hilts, not their points, shall be in our grasp. Charles the Burgundy, Flanders and Lorraine, Duke of Seven Dukedoms, Count of Seventeen Earldoms, I bid you defiance, and declare war against you in the name of the confederated cantons, and such others as shall adhere to them. There, he said, are my letters of defiance. The herald took from Arnold Biedermann, the fatal denunciation. Read it not, Twas Sondor, said the Harley Duke, let the executioner drag it through the streets at his horse's tail, and nail it to the gibbet to show in what account we hold the paltry scroll and those who sent it. The way, sirs, speaking to the Swiss, drugged back to your wildernesses with such haste as your feet can use when we next meet you shall better know whom you have offended. Get our horse ready, the council is broken up. End of Section 96. This recording is in the public domain. Section 97 of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. This is a LibriVox recording. Our LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The World's Story, Volume 7. Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Edited by Eva March Tappen. Section 97. How the Swiss met Charles the Bold of Burgundy. 1476 by Heinrich Schoker. When Duke Charles of Burgundy had passed the juror, he found the city of Eva done already in possession of his people. By the aid of treacherous citizens. In the castle alone, a weak troop of bernese still resisted his whole force. And when he appeared before grandson, the little garrison intrepidly withstood his rage and was not intimidated, although the castle was assaulted day and night. Irritated at having been uselessly detained for 10 days before this miserable place. He ordered a general attack and threatened to hang all the Swiss if they resisted any longer. This shook the courage of many, especially of the cowardly Captain John Weiler. Thereupon came to them from the enemy's camp, a Burgundian noble who spoke German, praised their courage, said that the Duke respected it, and in the name of the prince promised them a free retreat if they would desist from their fruitless resistance. They allowed themselves to be persuaded, and after having presented a hundred guilders to the Burgundian in gratitude for his mediation, left the castle without mistrust. But the Duke caused them to be seized and hung naked on the trees by hundreds. Others were cruelly dragged about in the water with ropes until they were drowned. In the meanwhile, the Confederates, 20,000 strong, hurried towards grandson without fear of the Duke's army, thrice there at numbers. In the dawn of the 3rd of March, 1476, the soldiers of Lucerne, Slides, and Bernese Oberland, the vanguard, showed themselves among the vineyards between the lake of New Chateau and the Jura Mountains. After having made their prayer, they commenced the attack, with firm steppe, fryberg, and Bern, also pressed forward, led by the experienced warrior, John of Hallwell, and the Bernese of Royer, Nicholas of Chateau. And when this vanguard had already, for several hours, maintained a severe combat on the bloody field, then first the main body of the advancing Confederates appeared upon the heights in the bright rays of the noonday sun. From the tops of the hills resounded the spirits during notes of the horn of Antur Valdan and the gloomy bellowing of the bull of Uri. Footnote, a bull is on the flag of Uri and a horn, which imitates the bellowing of that animal, is the battle call of the cantan. End of footnote. There also waved the banners of Zurich and Schoffhausen. What people are those, cried the duke, those are the men before whom Austria fled, replied the Lord of Stein. Alas, said the duke, a handful of these men have harassed us the whole day, what will become of us when they come in such numbers. And terror seized upon his troops when that bloody work commenced anew, in vain did the duke throw himself before the fliers. He could not stop them, they carried him away with them. The eager Swiss pursued even into the dark night, but when the men of Bern and Freiberg saw the bodies hanging on the trees before grandson, furiously they stormed the castle. The Burgundian soldiers tremblingly surrendered, but they were all hung without pity in the place of the dead Swiss whose bodies their friends carried away. Bold jaws had lost a thousand men, and his magnificent camp equipped valued at more than a million of guilders. Even his ducal robes ornamented with pearls, diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones fell into the hands of the Confederates. A Swiss found upon the highway a diamond, large as half a nut, he sold this brilliant stone the value of which he did not know and which he was about to throw away to a priest for three francs. Afterwards it passed through many hands until it finally reached the triple crown of the Pope at the price of twenty thousand ducats. Footnote, about forty six thousand dollars. End of footnote. Another diamond also found in the camp through successive purchases and sales went to ornament the royal crown of France, so valuable was the booty. Soon unexpectedly Charles returned with fresh forces by Lausanne into Switzerland. He mustered his large army near Lausanne in April. Then he marched to the shores of the lake of new Châtel and thence against Moira, Merton. Here Adrian of Bubenburg with six hundred braves and the men of the city maintained a better defense than had formerly been made at grandson. While the Duke was detained here the Confederates and their friends assembled their troops. Moira was already in danger. The ramparts and tower were breached. The wall was shaken but not the courage of Adrian of Bubenburg and his Swiss. He remained firm until the Confederates arrived from all sides with their allies of Bienn. They all saw cities Bala, St. Gallen and Schoffhausen. These came first. After them in the bad weather over the bad roads hurried the men of Zurich, Thurgau, Aragau and Sargans. John Waldman, the leader of the Zurichers, allowed his tired people only a few hours rest at Bern on the evening before the battle. Then gave the signal for marching at ten o'clock at night. The whole city was illuminated before every house stood tables with refreshments for the soldiers in the darkness through storm and rain. The main body of the troops marched towards Moira. The day of battle dawned, the sky was covered with clouds, rain fell in streams. Then the Burgundians deployed their immense array before the eyes of the Confederates. But the Confederates were barely thirty four thousand men. John of Hallwell, before he gave the signal for attack, knelt down with his army. And while they prayed, the sun broke brightly through the clouds. At once John of Hallwell waved his sword and cried, Up, up, Confederate sea, God will shine upon our victory. It was the twenty second of June. Then thundered the shock of arms, then the smiting and fighting spread from the lake to the heights. On the left fought Hallwell, on the right by the lake, the strength of the Swiss army under John Waldman. Among the trees along the shore, Boob and Berg, Hallwell had a hard fight, But he maintained it until Casper of Hortenstein, the white-hair general of Lucerne, appeared on the heights behind the enemy. Hallwell had sent him wither through pipads. Now death penetrated the ranks of the Burgundians in front and rear. Thousands fought, thousands fell, thousands fled. The duke saw that all was lost, leaped upon his fleet horse, and pale and gloomy, with barely thirty knights, escaped to the lake of Geneva. Fifteen thousand of his people lay slain between the lake of Morat and of Anche, Many seeking for safety perished in the water and in the swamps of the lake shore. The rest were dispersed, all the enemy's tents, provisions, and treasures became the booty of the victors. The dead bodies were buried in trenches with quick line and covered with earth. Some years afterwards the people of Morat built an ashtuari, Which they filled with Burgundian bones and skulls to assure foreigners how formidable the Confederates are when united. In the section 97, this recording is in the public domain. Section 98 of Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The World Story, Volume 7, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, edited by Eva March, Tappen. Section 98, the milk porridge incident, a story of the Reformation by Clarence Rook. The eastern and northern cantons had gradually accepted the reformed faith, And Bern was in sympathy with it by 1528. A year later, Basil and Schaffhausen followed, And then somewhat less wholeheartedly, St. Gaul, Appenzell, Graubenden, and Solothorn. These, you will reflect, represented mainly the men of the towns, the men who were in the stream of contemporary thought. But over against them were the men of the mountains, the men of the forest cantons that had formed the nucleus of the Swiss Confederation. They remained loyal, Catholic. It has been suggested that their simple lives were mirrored in the lives of their village priests, Who showed none of the degeneracy that set the men of towns against their own priesthood. Whether this be so or not, the forest cantons stood firm as the stronghold of Catholicism in Switzerland. And it is possible that their latest reinforcement and their one city, Lucerne, had more worldly motives for resisting the march of the Reformation. For Lucerne was in the pay of France and was the leading exporter of mercenary troops. Measures were demanded for the suppression of heresy at Zurich, and Lucerne found in Zurich her chief rival for supremacy. It was even proposed to expel Zurich from the Confederation and the forest cantons gave orders for swingly arrest if he should be found within their territories. Then came one of those picturesque incidents that even in historical times and free from the riddling criticism of the investigator have brightened the story of the Swiss Republic. Between the religious parties the gulf widened until the split became political as well as religious. The Christian League was formed for swingly at Zurich and Calvin at Geneva were organizing the revolt against Rome. This was a Protestant League between the Swiss reformers headed by Zurich and Bern and it was joined by some of the German cities as well as the Elector of Hess. The Catholics on the other hand formed an alliance with Ferdinand de Austria, a strenuous ally of the Vatican and war was declared by Zurich upon the forest cantons. It seemed that the Confederation was to be rent asunder for even swingly who took the field with the city's troops was against the temporizing measures which were adopted, a sense of humor saved the situation for a moment and brought about the famous cappella milk supper. It was one of those incidents that brightened every war, even as the Japanese exchange cigarettes with the Russians in the Manchurian trenches and boars and British bombarded each other on Christmas Day at May King with footings. At Capell the two armies met Catholics and Protestants and lay facing one another and for the moment the religious fury subsided under the influence of good fellowship. A band of jolly Catholics had got hold of a large bowl of milk but lacking bread they placed it on the boundary line between Zugg and Zurich. At once a group of Zurich men turned up with some loaves and presently the whole party fell to eating the milk supper right merrily. On June 29, 1529 a peace was concluded by which the Austrian League was dissolved and freedom of worship granted to all. End of Section 98. This recording is in the public domain. Section 99 of Germany the Netherlands and Switzerland. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The World Story Volume 7. Germany the Netherlands and Switzerland. Edited by Eva March Tappen. Section 99. The Prison of Chi-Yong by Jacob Abbott. Early in the 16th century the Reformation aroused disagreement among the Cantons. There was also trouble with the Duke of Savoy because he had seized the paix de Vaux. Byron however succeeded in regaining the district. Francois de Bonneval was one of the most determined opponents of the Duke in his efforts to conquer Geneva. In 1570 he was arrested by followers of the Duke and for six years was a prisoner in the dungeon of the castle of Chi-Yong on Lake Geneva. It was of him that Byron's poem the prisoner of Chi-Yong was written. The editor. They walked on following their teacher to the end of the bridge room where they came to the great castle gates. These were open too and they went in. They found themselves in a paved courtyard with towers and battlements and lofty walls all around them. There was a man there waiting to receive them in charge and showed them into the dungeons. He led the way through a door and fenced down a flight of stone steps to a series of subterranean chambers which were very dimly lighted by little windows opening towards the lake. The back sides of the rooms consisted of the living rock. The front sides were formed of the castle wall that bordered the lake. Here is the room, said the guide, where the prisoners who were condemned to death in the castle in former times spent the last night before their execution. That stone was the bed where they had to lie. So saying the guide pointed to a broad smooth and sloping surface of rock which was formed by the ledge on the back side of the dungeon. The stone was part of the solid ledge and was surrounded with ragged crags just as they had been left by the excavators in making the dungeon. But whether the smooth and sloping surface of this particular portion of the rock was natural or artificial, that is, whether it had been expressly made so to form a bed for the poor condemned criminal or whether the rock had accidentally broken into that form by means of some natural fissure and so had been appropriated by the governor of the castle to that use, the boys could not determine. The guide led the boys a little further on to a place where there was a dark recess and pointing up towards the ceiling, he said, There is where the criminals were wrong. Opperein pointe, there is a beam built into the rock and from that the rope was suspended. They next came to a very large apartment. The front side and the back side of it were both curved. The back side consisted of a living rock. The front side was formed of the outer castle wall which was built on the rock at the very margin of the water. In the center was a range of seven massive stone columns placed there to sport the arches on which rested the floor of the principal story of the castle above. The roof of this dungeon, of course, was vaulted, the arches and groins being carried over from this range of central pillars towards the wall in front and towards a solid rock behind. This great dungeon was lighted by means of very small loopholes cut in the wall high up from the floor. The light from these windows, instead of coming down and shining upon the floor, seemed to go up and to lose itself in a faint attempt to illuminate the vaulted roof above. The reason was that at the particular hour when the boys made their visit, the beams of the sun which were shown directly from it in the sky were excluded and only those that were reflected upward from the waters of the lake could come in. The guide led the boys to one of the central pillars and pointed to an iron ring which was built into the stone. He told them that there was the place where one prisoner was confined in the dungeon for six years. He was chained to that ring by a short chain which enabled him only to walk to and fro a few steps each way about the pillar. These steps had worn a place in the rock. After the boys had looked at this pillar and at the iron ring and at the place worn on the floor by the footsteps of the prisoner as long as they wished, they followed the guide on to the end of the dungeon where they were stopped by the solid rock. Here the guide brought them to a dark and gloomy place in a corner whereby standing a little back they could see all the pillars in a row and he said that if they would count them they would find that there were exactly seven. The boys did so and they found that there were seven but they did not understand why the number was of any importance. But the teacher explained it to them. He said that Byron had mentioned seven as the number of the pillars in his poem and that most people who had read the poem were pleased to observe the correspondence between his description and the reality. The teacher quoted the lines. They were these. In Chillon's dungeons deep and old there are seven columns, massy and gray, dim with a dull imprisoned ray, a sunbeam that had lost its way, and through the crevice and the cleft of the thick wall is fallen and left creeping over the floor so damp like a marsh's meteor lamp. When the party came out of the dungeons a young woman took them in charge to show them the apartments above. She conducted them up to a broad flight of stone stairs to a massive doorway which led to the principal story of the castle. Here the boys passed through one after another of several large halls which were formally used for various purposes when the castle was inhabited but are employed now for the storage of brass cannon and of ammunition belonging to the Swiss government. When the castle was built the country in which it stands belonged to a neighboring state called Savoy and it was the Duke of Savoy who was a sort of king that built it and it was he that confined the prisoners in it so cruelly. Many of them were confined there on account of being accused of conspiring against his government. At length, however, the war broke out between Switzerland and Savoy and the Swiss were victorious. They besieged this castle by an army on the land and by a fleet of galleys on the lake and in due time they took it. They led all the prisoners whom they found there go free and since then they have used the castle as a place of storage for arms and ammunition. One of the halls which the boys went into, the guide said used to be a senate house and another was the courtroom where the prisoners were tried. There was a staircase which led from the courtroom down to the dungeon below where the great black beam was from which they were to be hung. The boys, however, did not pay any great deal of attention to what the guide said about the former uses of these rooms. They seemed to be much more interested in the purposes that they were now serving and so went about examining very eagerly the great brass cannon and the ammunition wagons that stood in them. At length, however, they came to something which specially attracted their attention. It was a small room which the guide said was an ancient torturing room. There was a large wooden post in the center of the room extending from the floor to the vault above. The post was worn and blackened by time and decay and there were various hooks and staples and pulleys attached to it at different heights which the guide said were used for securing the prisoners to the post where they were to be tortured. The post itself was burned in many places as if by hot irons. The boys saw another place in a room beyond which was, in some respects, still more dreadful than this. It was a place where there was an opening in the floor near the wall of the room that looked like a trapped door. There was the beginning of a stone stair leading down. A small railing was built round the opening as if to keep people from falling in. The boys all crowded round the railing and looked down. They saw that the stair only went down three steps and that it came to a sudden end and all below was a dark and dismal pit which seemed bottomless. On looking more intently, however, they could at length see a glimmer of light near the rippling of the waves at the lake at a great depth below. The guide said that this was one of the Ublieta that is a place where men could be destroyed secretly and in such a manner that no one should ever know what became of them. They were conducted to this door and directed to go down. It was dark so that they could only see the first steps of the stair. They would suppose, however, that the stair was continued and that it would lead them down to some room where they were to go. So they would walk on carefully, feeling for the steps of the stair. But after the third there would be no more and they would fall down to a great depth on ragged rocks and be killed. To make it certain that they would be killed by the fall there were sharp blades like the ends of size fixed in the rock far below to cut them in pieces as they fell. When they came out and were getting into the carriage Mr. Holliday said that it was a very interesting place. Yes, said Mrs. Holliday. And we have seen all that Byron speaks of in his poem except the Little Island. Where is the Little Island? Mr. Holliday pointed out over the water of the lake where a group of three tall trees seemed to be growing directly out of the water only that there was a little wall around them below. They look like three flowers growing in a flower pot set in the water. Yes, said Mrs. Holliday. That must certainly be it. It corresponds exactly. So she repeated the following lines from Byron's poem which describes the island in the language of one of the prisoners who saw it from his dungeon window. And then there was a little isle which in my very face did smile the only one in view. A small green isle it seemed no more scarce broader than my dungeon floor. But in it there were three tall trees and over it blew the mountain breeze and by it there were waters flowing and on it there were young flowers growing a gentle breath and hue. End of section 99. This recording is in the public domain. Section 100 of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sonja. The World Story Volume 7 Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland edited by Eva Marge-Teppen. Section 100. The Lion at Lucerne by Boyd Winchester. They, the Swiss, made a trade of war letting themselves out as mercenaries. The Holy Father himself entered the list of bargainers and in 1503 Pope Julius III engaged the first of those Swiss lifeguards whose names became famous in Europe. From Louis XI to Louis XV the Swiss are said to have furnished for the French service over half a million men. In the wars between the French King and the Emperor Maximilian in 1516 the Swiss fought on both sides. In its last extremity it was neither in its title nobility nor its native armies that the French throne found fidelity but in the freeborn peasant soldiers of Lucerne. Of the undaunted ranks of the Swiss guard defending the French royal family at the Tuileries on the 10th of August 1792 786 officers and soldiers fell in the place where they stood unconquered even in death and for two days their bodies lay in the gardens of the palace and the streets nearby exposed to the derision and insults of the frantic populace. Go, stranger, and let like a demon tell that here, obedient to her laws, we fell. To their memory a colossal lion twenty-eight feet long by eighteen feet high carved by Thorwaldsen out of the face of a solid sandstone rock in high relief was dedicated in 1821 at Lucerne. The lion is holding the fleur-de-lice in his paws which he is endeavouring to protect though mortally wounded by a spear which still remains in his side. Above the figure is the inscription Helvetiorum Fidei a Quirtuti footnote to the fidelity and bravery of the Swiss and the footnote. When the afternoon sun falls upon this effigy it is reflected beautifully in the dark pool close below. The grey rock rises perpendicularly some little height above and ends in a crown of acacias and drooping bushes and creepers. The fame of the Swiss in every war which desolated Europe from the fifteenth century down rose to an extraordinary pitch but this influence which as the hired soldiers of belligerent powers the exercised in the affairs of Europe was neither conducive to the wheel of the state nor worthy of the Swiss people. Edison wrote in 1709 of them the inhabitants of the country are as great curiosities as the country itself. They generally hire themselves out in their youth and if they are musket-proof till about fifty they bring home the money they have got and the limbs they have left to pass the rest of their time among their native mountains. He also relates that one of the gentlemen of the place told me by way of boast that there were now seven wooden legs in his family and that for these four generations there had not been one in his line that carried the whole body with him to the grave. From there being so frequently in the personal service of the foreign potentates the name of Switzer with some writers became synonymous with guards or attendants on a king. The king in Hamlet says where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door. In 1594 Nash in his tears over Jerusalem states that law, logic and the Switzers may be hired to fight for anybody. Even the French were so ungrateful as to chide the Swiss by saying we fight for honour but you fight for money to which the Switzer rejoined it is only natural that each of us like the rest of the world should fight for what he has not got. End of section 100 This recording is in the public domain. Section 101 of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland read for LibriVox.org by April 6090 California, United States of America Switzerland Part 4 Stories of Alpine Adventure Historical Note The earliest recorded ascent of an Alpine peak was undertaken in 1358 in fulfillment of a vow but systematic exploration of the high altitudes did not begin until the latter part of the 18th century. In the middle of the 19th century mountaineering suddenly became popular. Alpine clubs were formed, hotels sprang up and the Alps became a magnet for the tourists of Europe and America. There have been two especially famous crossings of the Alps one by Hannibal Footnote See Volume 4 How Hannibal made his way to Italy End of footnote The other by Napoleon Footnote See Volume 5 When Napoleon crossed the Alps End of footnote Hannibal with men and elephants made the passage in the autumn of 218 BC. He was misled by treacherous guides. Masses of rock were rolled down upon his army by enemies on the cliffs above. The ground was covered with snow and it was bitterly cold. The descent was over bare ice wet with the slush of melting snow. Roads had to be built no small undertaking for they must be wide enough and strong enough to support the elephants. Not half of his men had survived the fearful journey when the lines were drawn upon the plains of the poem. In 1800 Napoleon crossed the Alps in order to fall upon the Austrians. The climb was hardly less laborious than in the times of Hannibal but Napoleon's marvellous planning of details made the feat a different matter. He collected vast quantities of food in various places sent ahead money to hire mules and peasants set up skillful mechanics at intervals along the road to make all-needful repairs and take the gun carriages and baggage wagons apart for carrying established two hospitals for the sick and wounded and even sent bread and cheese and wine to the summit enough for his forty thousand men. But the engineers who had been sent to explore the path reported it almost insurmountable. Is it possible to cross? asked Napoleon. Perhaps it is within the limits of possibility was the reply. Forward then was Napoleon's order and the army crossed the Alps. End of section 101 This recording is in the public domain. Section 102 of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Devorah Allen. The World Story Volume 7 Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland edited by Eva March-Tappen. Section 102 Swept down by an avalanche by Heinrich Schocker. When Napoleon organized what he called the Helvetic Republic Grison, a bit of territory among the loftiest Alps was permitted to remain outside but was invited to join the Union. It was plain that the invitation would mean compulsion as it did later. The party thought it best to join the Republic. The aristocrats refused and thought it far better to take shelter under the wing of Austria. Austrian troops poured into the land from the west, French troops from the north and south. The hero of the following exploit is pictured as having just taken part in a fight between the French and the peasants. The editor The firing behind him became livelier. The mist rose. A few soldiers were forming ranks to oppose the advancing peasantry. They were close at hand. The captain of sharpshooters wanted to gain them, the more so as he found a discarded musket on the ground. He stooped to pick it up. The shots rattled round his ears. He felt the shock and rush of men dashing past him and fell backwards down one of the precipitous slopes of the mountainside. He happened fortunately to fall upon a dazzling but moderately sloping field of snow, and his descent was not at first very rapid. The position of his body was, however, one to cause alarm. He had fallen on his back, with his head downwards, and was threatened with death on the first projecting fragment of rock his skull chanced to meet. With great presence of mind, Privo attempted, by a powerful sideswing, to bring his feet foremost in his descent. He only partially succeeded in this endeavour, for no sooner had he brought his body into a kind of equilibrium, than he rolled downwards like a cylinder over the smooth snow slope. With the strength begotten of despair, he struck out with his arms and legs to their great danger, and checked the rapidity of his descent, which was bringing on vertigo. He finally succeeded by digging his hands into the snow and using the crampons on his feet, and bringing himself up for a moment on his perilous downward path. Breathless, he remained a moment in the most dangerous uncertainty. The ground beneath him, the mountains above him, seemed to be whirling round. In the distance above, he heard the sharp whip-crack of the rifles. Beneath him, a dull roar as of a furious torrent. When his giddiness had, for a moment, subsided, he ventured to half-raise his body, and look around for some chance of escape. He had not the courage to look up at the height from which he had fallen. The least movement more might carry him down into the abyss which yawned below him. The broad expense of the sloping mountainside swept down to a depth that could not be measured. Around him was nothing but a white, a dazzling white precipitous snow slope, without a bush or a projecting rock to which he could cling. He could certainly not remain where he at present clung. Neither could he hope for human aid. He gazed disconsolently at the heavens, sighed quietly, goodbye, Laura. And commending himself to God, suddenly determined to put an end to the vain torture of life. But life struggled hard against death, and the yearning for escape asserted itself with might. The hope was still strong in him that perhaps he might reach the bottom of the mountain with his life if he could manage the descent quietly foot by foot. He cautiously began the attempt. But he immediately discovered that the whole mass of snow, with and under his body, had broken away from its bed of ice and was moving downwards with him. Enormous masses of snow were soon rushing past him. He was surrounded by clouds of silvery dust. More rapid and wild became the descent. Finally the whole mass which was carrying him along shot away with him swift as an arrow. There was no stopping. Darkness settled upon his senses. Consciousness died out. Now and then a kind of inchoate idea would, like a feebly flickering flame, play to the surface of the mind, but immediately died away. His state was that of oscillation between waking and sleeping, life and death, but was neither the one nor the other. Consciousness seemed smitten with the dull feeling of annihilation. Its feeble and transient recovery was like the slumber of the grave. Still sensibility began to assert itself in the feeling of corpse-like coldness in the face. He heard a muffled rumbling and roaring. He still breathed and had command of his mind, but without any recollection. He instinctively moved his hands from time to time in the icy wetness, opened and shut his eyes, opened them with difficulty, and then perceived neither light nor darkness. He soon remembered his fall without being able to tell whether he was still continuing or whether he was a mangled wreck in the depths of one of the glacier crevasses. The past broke in more clearly upon his confused perceptions. The present contained nothing. His body made an involuntary effort at standing up, but in vain. His limbs lay either broken or paralyzed or bound. A heavy weight was pressing down upon the body. Terror seized his soul as he thought he was still living but buried alive. In horrible agony he worked with his forehead and hands against the mass which was lying upon him. It constantly fell in again. It became clearer to him that he had been swept away by an avalanche. Life in desperation now struggled with the strength of a giant. He drew his hands together like an earthworm boring and drove them out with all his might. He fought through with head and arms, dragging his body after him. Until finally, a steady brilliancy in the snow betokened the near neighborhood of daylight. His movements immediately became more rapid, vigorous and easy. He finally broke through, stepped out of his grave and exhausted even to faintness by his tremendous exertions sank down at the edge of the avalanche. He found himself in a narrow cleft between the rugged mountains whose feet met. Up the precipitous snow slope of the one mountain he recognized the broad track of the avalanche which he had doubtless caused by his own fall. The other mountain rose almost perpendicularly with gigantic slabs of rock overlapping one another or with enormous hollows washed out by the waters of the primeval world. It was crested by a dark pine wood, the greater portion of which broken and laid low by stones and avalanches looked like enormous corn stalks after a heavy rainstorm. The captain of rifles thought with a shudder of the horrible death from which he had escaped with life and limb and as those still doubtful of the reality of his deliverance from time to time felt and rubbed his thighs and arms. Even the flask at his side was still unbroken. He folded his hands, sent a look of gratitude accompanied by a sigh to heaven. His next thought was to seek an outlet from the rocky gorge into which his good angel had directed his lightning-like flight in safety. A little mountain torrent did duty as a signpost. This stream, springing in diminutive waterfalls from one ledge to another, continued its course between steep ridges of snow and precipitous clefts in the rock to unknown parts. His way through a wild and narrow gorge was not made without difficulty. At one time the passage between the rocks was so narrow that the torrent could hardly find a way for its foaming waters. At another it was almost cut off by enormous blocks of fallen rock. Night had already closed in before Flavion finally became aware by the light of the stars and the weird sheen of the snow that he had got into the open. He stepped forward without knowing wither, perhaps to encounter fresh dangers. Although from his boyhood upwards he had not unfrequently found himself in a similar position on his chamois-hunting excursions on his native mountains, still his courage at times failed him when he remembered that he now had to ask food in shelter from a peasantry maddened by the excitement of victory and the total discompensure of their enemies. He might have walked forward about a league when he discovered in the snow great numbers of human footprints. He resolutely followed the tracks which he knew must lead to some inhabited neighbourhood. End of Section 102 Section 103 of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The World's Story Volume 7 Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland edited by Iwa March Tappen Section 103 The Slide of Alpnach by L.A. Gilbert Owing to political changes the demand for the timber of Mount Pilatus seized and hardly a trace of the famous slide can now be found. The Editor For many centuries the rugged flanks and the deep gorges of Mount Pilatus were covered with impenetrable forests. Lofty precipices encircled them on all sides. Even the daring hunters were scarcely able to reach them and the inhabitants of the valley had never conceived the idea of disturbing them with the axe. These immense forests were therefore permitted to grow and to perish without being of the least utility to man till a foreigner, conducted into their wild recesses in the pursuit of the chauvoir, was struck with wonder at the sight and directed the attention of several Swiss gentlemen to the extent and superiority of the timber. The most intelligent and skillful individuals, however, considered it quite impracticable to avail themselves of such inaccessible stores. It was not till November 1816 that Monsieur Roup and three Swiss gentlemen entertaining more sanguine hopes drew up a plan of a slide founded on trigonometrical measures. Having purchased a certain extent of the forests from the commune of Alpnach for 6,000 crowns they began the construction of the slide and completed it in the spring of 1818. The slide of Alpnach is formed entirely of about 5,000 large pine trees deprived of their bark and united together in a very ingenious manner without the aid of iron. It occupied about 160 workmen during 18 months and cost nearly 100,000 francs or 4,250 pounds. It is about three leagues or 44,000 English feet long and terminates in the lake of Lucerne. It has the form of a trough about six feet broad and from three to six feet deep. Its bottom is formed of three trees the middle one of which has a groove cut in the direction of its length for receiving small rills of water which are conducted into it from various places for the purpose of diminishing the friction. The whole of the slide is sustained by about 2,000 supports and in many places it is attached in a very ingenious manner to the rugged precipices of granite. The direction of the slide is sometimes straight and sometimes zigzag with an inclination of from 10 degrees to 18 degrees. It is often carried along the sides of hills and the flanks of precipitous rocks and sometimes passes over their summits. Occasionally it goes underground and at other times it is conducted over the deep gorges by scaffoldings 120 feet in height. The boldness which characterizes this work the sagacity displayed in all its arrangements and the skill of the engineer have excited the wonder of every person who has seen it. Before any step could be taken in its erection it was necessary to cut several thousand trees to obtain a passage through the impenetrable thickets and as the workmen advanced men were posted at certain distances to point out the road for their return and to discover in the gorges the places where the piles of wood had been established. Monsieur Roup was himself obliged more than once to be suspended by courts in order to descend precipices many hundred feet high and in the first months of the undertaking he was attacked with a violent fever which deprived him of the power of superintending his workmen. Nothing, however, could diminish his invincible perseverance. He was carried every day to the mountain in a barrow to direct the labourers of the workmen which was absolutely necessary as he had scarcely two good carpenters among them all the rest having been hired by accident without any of the knowledge which such an undertaking required. Monsieur Roup had also to contend against the prejudices of the peasantry he was supposed to have communion with the devil he was charged with heresy and every obstacle was thrown in the way of an enterprise which they regarded as absurd and impracticable. All these difficulties, however, were surmounted and he had at last the satisfaction of observing the trees descend from the mountain with the rapidity of lightning the larger pines which were about a hundred feet long and ten inches thick at their smaller extremity ran through the space of three leagues or nearly nine miles in two minutes and a half and during their descent they appeared to be only a few feet in length. The arrangements for this part of the operation were extremely simple from the lower end of the slide to the upper end where the trees were introduced workmen were posted at regular distances and as soon as everything was ready the workmen at the lower end of the slide cried out to the one above him lâcher, let go the cry was repeated from one to another and reached the top of the slide in three minutes the workmen at the top of the slide then cried out to the one below him il vient, it comes and the tree was immediately launched down the slide preceded by the cry which was repeated from post to post as soon as the tree had reached the bottom and plunged into the lake the cry of lâcher was repeated as before and a new tree was launched in a similar manner by these means a tree descended every five or six minutes provided no accident happened to the slide which sometimes took place but which was instantly repaired when it did in order to show the enormous force which the trees acquired from the great velocity of their descent, Monsieur Roup made arrangements for causing some of the trees to spring from the slide they penetrated by their thickest extremities no less than from 18 to 24 feet into the earth and one of the trees having by accident struck against another it instantly clipped it through its whole length as if it had been struck by lightning after the trees had descended the slide they were collected into rafts upon the lake and conducted to Lucerne from then they descended to Reuss then the R to near Brug afterwards to Walzhout by the Rhine then to Basel and even to the sea when it was necessary in order that none of the small wood might be lost Monsieur Roup established in the forest large manufacturers of charcoal he erected magazines for preserving it when manufactured and had made arrangements for the construction of barrels for the purpose of carrying it to the market in winter when the slide was covered with snow the barrels were made to descend on a kind of sledge the wood which was not fit for being carbonized was heaped up and burnt and the ashes packed up and carried away during the winter a few days before the author of the preceding account visited the slide an inspector of the navy had come for the purpose of examining the quality of the timber he declared that he had never seen any timber that was so strong, so fine and of such a size and he concluded an advantageous bargain for 1,000 trees End of section 103 Coming by April 6,090, California, United States of America The World's Story, Volume 7 Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland Edited by Eva March Tappen Section 104 The First Ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Wimper The following description of the Matterhorn and the account of its first ascent were written by the first person who ever reached its summit A year after a year he tried to climb the mountain seven times he failed on the eighth time he succeeded the editor My readers will know that the peak is nearly 15,000 feet high and that it rises abruptly by a series of cliffs which may properly be termed precipices a clear 5,000 feet above the glaciers which surrounded its base They will know too which remained unscaled less on account of the difficulty of doing so than from the terror inspired by its invincible appearance there seemed to be a cordon drawn around it up to which one might go but no farther within that invisible line gins the end of frets were supposed to exist the wandering Jew and the spirits of the damned the superstitious natives in the surrounding valleys many of whom still firmly believe it to be not only the highest mountain in the Alps but in the world spoke of a ruined city on its summit wherein the spirits dwelt and if you laughed they gravely shook their heads told you to look yourself to see the castles and the walls and warned against a rash approach lest the inferior demons from their impregnable heights might hurl down vengeance for one's derision such were the traditions of the natives stronger minds felt the influence of the wonderful form and the men who ordinarily spoke or wrote like rational beings when they came under its power seemed to quit their senses and ranted and rhapsodized losing for a time all common forms of speech the Matterhorn looks equally impossible from whatever side it is seen it never seems commonplace and in this respect and in regard to the impression it makes upon spectators it stands almost alone amongst mountains it has no rival in the Alps but few in the world we started from Zermatt on the 13th of July at half past five on a brilliant and perfectly cloudless morning we were aid in number Kroz, old Peter, and his two sons Lord Francis Douglas, Hidal, Hudson, and I to ensure steady motion one tourist and one native walked together this tugwalder fell to my share and the lad marched well proud to be on the expedition and happy to show his powers the wine bags also fell to my lot to carry and throughout the day after each drink I replenished them secretly with water so that at the next halt they were found fuller than before this was considered a good omen and little short of miraculous on the first day we did not intend to ascend to any great height and we mounted accordingly very leisurely picked up the things which were left in the chapel at the Schwartzee at 820 and proceeded dense along the ridge connecting the hornly with the Matterhorn at half past eleven we arrived at the base of the actual peak then put at the ridge and clambered round some ledges onto the eastern face we were now fairly upon the mountain and were astonished to find that places which from the riffle or even from the Pergen Glickcher looked entirely impractical which so easy that we could run about before twelve o'clock we found a good position for the tent at a height of eleven thousand feet Kros and young Peter went on to see what was above and in order to save time on the following morning they cut across the heads of the snow slopes which descended toward the Fergen's lecture and disappeared round a corner shortly afterward we saw them high upon the face moving quickly we others made a solid platform for the tent in a well protected spot and then watched eagerly for the return of the men the stones which they have set told that they were very high and we suppose that the way must be easy at length just before three p.m. we saw them coming down evidently much excited what are they saying Peter gentlemen they say it is no good but when they came near we heard a different story nothing but what was good not a difficulty not a single difficulty we could have gone to the summit and return to day easily we passed the remaining hours of daylight some basking in the sunshine some sketching or collecting and when the sun went down giving as it departed a glorious promise for the morrow we returned to the tent to arrange for the night Hudson made tea I copy and we then retired each one to his blanket bag the Togwalders Lord Francis Douglas and myself occupying the tent the others remaining by preference outside long after dusk the cliffs above echoed with our laughter and with the songs of the guides for we were happy that night in camp and feared no evil we assembled together outside the tent before dawn on the morning of the 14th and started as soon as it was light enough to move young Peter came on with us as a guide and his brother returned to the summit we followed the route which we had been taken on the previous day and in a few minutes turned the rib which had intercepted the view of the eastern face from our tent platform the whole of this great slope was now revealed rising for 3,000 feet like a huge natural staircase some parts were more and others were less easy but we were not once brought to a halt by any serious impediment for when an obstruction was met in front it could always be turned to the right or to the left for the greater part of the way there was indeed no occasion for the rope and sometimes Hudson led, sometimes myself at 620 we had attained a height of 12,800 feet and halted for half an hour and continued the ascent without a break until 955 when we stopped for 50 minutes at a height of 14,000 feet twice we struck the northeastern ridge and followed it for some distance to no advantage for it was usually more rotten and steep and always more difficult than the face still we kept near it less stones per chance should fall we had now arrived at the foot of that part which from the rifle-burg or from Zermatt seemed perpendicular or overhanging and could no longer continue upon the eastern side for a little distance we ascended by snow upon the arete, that is the ridge descending towards Zermatt and then by common consent turned over to the right or to the northern side before doing so we made a change in the order of the ascent Cross went first, I followed Hudson came third Hadao and old Peter were last now, said Cross as he led off now for something altogether different the work became difficult and required caution in some places there was little to hold and it was desirable that those should be in front who were least likely to slip the general slip of the mountain at this part was less than 40 degrees and snow had accumulated in and had filled up the interstices of the rock face leaving only occasional fragments projecting here and there these were at times covered with a thin film of ice produced from the melting and refreezing of the snow this solitary difficult part was of no great extent we bore away over at first nearly horizontally for a distance of about 400 feet then ascended directly toward the summit for about 60 feet and then doubled back to the ridge which descends towards Zermatt a long stride round a rather awkward corner brought us to snow once more the last doubt vanished the Matterhorn was ours nothing but 200 feet of easy snow remained to be surmounted you must now carry your thoughts back to the seven Italians who started from Bruel on the 11th of July four days had passed since their departure and we were tormented with anxiety lest they should arrive upon the top before us all the way up we had talked of them and many false alarms of men on the summit were raised the higher we rose the more intense became the excitement what if we should be beaten at the last moment the slope eased off at length we could be detached and Krause and I, dashing away ran a neck and neck race which we ended in a dead heat at 1.40 p.m. the world was at our feet and the Matterhorn was conquered hurrah! not a footstep could be seen it was not yet certain that we had not been beaten the summit of the Matterhorn was formed of a rudely level ridge about 350 feet long and the Italians might have been at its farther extremity I hastened to the southern end scanning the snow right and left eagerly hurrah! again! it was untrodden where were the men? I peered over the cliff half doubting, half expecting I sawed them immediately mirrored dots on the ridge distance below up with my arms and my hat Krause! Krause! come here! where are they, Monsieur? there! don't you see them down there? ah, the conqueens! they're low down Krause, we must make those fellows hear us we yelled until we were hoarse the Italians seemed to regard us we could not be certain Krause, we must make them hear us they shall hear us I seized a block of rock and hurled it down and called upon my companions in the name of friendship to do the same we drove our sticks in and pried away the crags and soon a torrent of stones poured down the cliffs there was no mistake about it this time the Italians turned and fled the others had arrived so we went back to the northern end of the ridge Krause now took the tent pole and planted it in the highest snow yes, we said there is the flagstaff, but where is the flag? here it is, he answered, pulling off his blouse and fixing it to the stick it made a poor flag, and there was no wind to float it out yet it was seen all around they saw it at Zermatt at the riffle in the vall, Torninac, Ebreuil, the watchers cried victory is ours! they raised problems for Corell and Vivas for Italy and hastened to put themselves on foot on the morrow they were undeceived always changed, the explorers returned and cast down disheartened, confounded, gloomy it is true, said the men we saw them ourselves they hurled stones at us the old traditions are true there are spirits on the top of the Matterhorn end of section 104 this recording is in the public domain section 105 of Germany the Netherlands and Switzerland this is LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the world's story, volume 7 Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland edited by Eva March-Tappen section 105 tobogganing on a glacier by John Eddington Simons at half past two we started upon our walk and ascended the steep track which wound through rocks, scarce tufts of grass and withering bilberry bushes into the barren domains of ice and stone above our march was a very slow and laborious one for this reason Herr Guler, who knows these parts well being a native of them and a guide and hunter over them had for a long time passed entertained the brilliant and adventurous plan of tobogganing down over a large portion of the Silvretta Glacier as the autumn advanced the surface grew ever smoother and more fit and he urgently entreated me to join his expedition I willingly went rejoicing at the thought of such a novel experience as my favorite sport four toboggins had therefore to be carried up the 4,000 feet Christian Guler being a taciturn youth of great determination shoulder three and started on in front producing as he ascended through the alder bushes of very uncouth effect his father carried a fourth and as few provisions as four strong people could subsist upon for 24 hours the day was hot and the earth extremely dry after a period of three weeks brilliant weather we only halted once and for a small diversion set the hillside on fire innumerable little flames ran swiftly over the ground leaving black tracks behind them at 4.30 we reached the club hut it is a tiny stone edifice square with two little rooms a table some hay to sleep on and a most superior iron stove on this stove we cooked some coffee we had no milk the weight of the toboggins had forbidden any needless luxuries after our coffee we hurried out with a rope and an ice axe to make a hasty survey of the ice fall which breaks over the cliffs above Sardaska the glacier was already in shadow then and a faint reflected glow from the sunset cast strange gray green lights down through the deep crevasses where the unseen water gurgled on mysteriously all the upper peaks however glowed still for many minutes with an intense crimson hue darkness felt very suddenly and we were forced to turn in early to the huts white hair bustled likewise home among the boulders a tin of mock turtle soup added to the guides made soupa formed our evening meal an ancient pack of cards was then produced and the evening was spent in that thrilling pursuit of a shrill wind whistled down over the glacier against the outside walls but we were warm within a single candle cast our shadows round the room it was a wonderful world of snow and stars upon which we gazed before we went to sleep at 3 am we were aroused the aspect of the sky had greatly changed the great bear had disappeared but the brilliant belt of Orion stood directly opposite and very near the Pleiades the whole sky shimmered with innumerable lights and the thin wind blew through the uncauted air down over the snow as it had blown all night weak black coffee and butterless bread is not an appetizing meal whereof to partake at 3 30 am at least those who have not won their nights rest on a truss of hey might quarrel with it I know that I was willing enough to devour the meager meal but at 3 30 we left the huts and by the light of a single lantern we commenced our march we were preceded by the lounging form of the imperturbable Christian who with his back bowed beneath the weight of three toboggins and carrying a bundle of sticks under his arm might as he walked against the stars have laid the foundation for many mountain myths we soon reached the glacier and there welcomed the faint light of dawn which now became visible above the sharp black ridge of the wroth figure one by one the stars vanished but the bitter night wind still struggled with the smile of mourn and cut against our faces about half an hour up the glacier we left our lantern and put down the toboggins for it was now easier to draw them over the snow than to carry them we then continued our steady march for fully an hour and a half up over the snow fields stopping about every 40 yards to place a stick in the snow which should guide us on our downward tobogganing course there was a sprinkling of freshly fallen snow from 2 to 6 inches deep in places and we trod through this rather sorrowfully fearing lest it should interfere with our tobogganing projects one by one the great peaks rose behind us one by one the crimson rays of the rising sun caressed their glittering summits first duty shown then Eiger, Munch, Verstankla, Horned, Ortler and Pellue we were walking towards the dawn and the dawn was chasing back the earth's shadow which produced a line of purple lights fringed with tawny orange in the pallid western sky at 7.30 we reached the top of the glacier and there we left the toboggans intending to ascend the pits boon but an unfortunate incident occurred which greatly frightened and delayed us my friend unused to such high altitudes and early rising complained of feeling faint from cold and upon examination Herr Guler found that her right hand was badly frostbitten this entailed fully an hour and a half of continuous rubbing to the sustained exertions of Guler life was restored to the frozen fingers and we were able to return to the glacier and to our toboggan Christian and I took our seats at once and started slowly forward over the first gentle incline Guler followed in the rear towing my scarcely recovered friend at a pace which he made as moderate as the steepness of the descent allowed it was my privilege to ride a very superior racehorse but I soon saw to my sorrow that Christian's progress was much faster than my own owing to the fact that he carried two Alpen stocks with the help of which he propelled himself successfully forward so I hastened back to the starting point picked up two of our remaining markers and with these sticks to push me on I rode in pursuit of the fast disappearing Christian upon that immense expanse of virgin snow I can now only relate my own experiences of that memorable ride smooth and very slowly at first then on a sudden the runners of my toboggan glided easier then founded forward I realized that I was on the verge of the great kegel or rounded summit of the Silvretta pass below me lay the billowy sea of unending white beyond broken bits of moraine then glimpses of the verduous pro-tigao surmounted by innumerable ranges ending in 2D and the whole Bernese Oberland I could not fully realize the superb immensity of that Alpine view I merely tore off my hat, leaned back lifted my feet and felt my toboggan springing forward into space then followed the most breathless flight I have ever known I dashed the fresh snow into my face filling my ears, my eyelids my mouth and nostrils and plasping itself in upon my chest all power of controlling my headlong course had vanished I believed I invoked the deity and myself to stop at once this mad career then for a second all consciousness of danger forsook me I was seized with the intoxication of movement and hurled forward with closed eyes and lungs choked by the driving snow which rose in a cloud before me when I recovered my senses it was to find myself launched forth upon a gentler slope and many meters to the left of the assigned course a few feet in front of me I became aware of an old scar of a crevasse it was neck or nothing and I had no energy to stop I shot across it and steered out on the even plain of glacier I had descended through the sunlight in the space of five minutes a tract of snow field which had had taken us over an hour to climb at dawn thus ended my ride gladly would I repeat it in dove section 105 this recording is in the public domain section 106 of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland read for libelworks.org Switzerland part 5 life in the mountains historical note the population of Switzerland is less than 4 millions and more than one fourth of its area is unproductive it has neither coal nor iron but its waterfalls provide power and abundance and manufacturers flourish cotton weaving is carried on in large degree Eastern Switzerland almost specializes in embroidery many thousand watchmakers find employment in supplying the demand for Swiss watches cheese and condensed milk are made in large quantities wood carving is one of the best known of the arts of Switzerland the Swiss manufacturers aim at establishing a reputation for excellence rather than freezing the mass of their imports Switzerland is justly proud of the education that she gives to her citizens comparing the recruits drafted into the armies of different nations we find that of the Russian recruits 800 men in a thousand cannot read and write of the Italians 384 of the French 64 of the Germans two but of the Spitz the armies kept in good repair for every citizen is given military training the Swiss are by no means rich but they are an honest hardworking and exceedingly intelligent people and of section 106 this recording is in the public domain recording by Monika MC section 107 of Germany the Netherlands and Switzerland this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Sonja the world's story volume 7 Germany the Netherlands and Switzerland edited by Eva Marge-Tappen section 107 our borrowed scientists by W.D. McCracken little Neuchâtel once placed America under great obligation by lending it two very exceptional men of science Louis-Jean Rodolphe Agassiz 1807 to 1873 and Arnold-Henry Guillaume 1807 to 1884 they were colleagues in the academy at Neuchâtel cooperated in exploring and studying the glaciers went to America at about the same time and eventually took professorships in two of the foremost universities of the United States Agassiz at Harvard University and Guillaume at Princeton by quickening and ennobling scientific studies they earned the imperishable gratitude of their adopted land the great originator of the glacial theory was born at Motier-en-Vuit on the lake of Morat his father was pastor of the place at an early age he showed his spend for original research in natural history by turning the stone basin under the fountain of the parsonage into an aquarium his student days were spent at Bienn, Lausanne, Zürich Heidelberg and Munich at this last place he became a warm friend of Döllinger professor of comparative anatomy who was the father of that famous Döllinger who acquired celebrity as an opponent of papal infallibility Agassiz used to assemble enthusiastic fellow students for lectures on original work so that his study was nicknamed the Little Academy in Paris the young scientist made the acquaintance of von Humboldt who from that time on was able to render him many services Agassiz first made his mark as an ichtheologist at twenty-two he brought out his Brazilian fishes in 1832 was made professor at the Lyceum of Neuchâtel was the keenest interest teaching his pupils as much as possible out of doors and in 1837 read his famous treatise before the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences assembled at Neuchâtel in which he expounded for the first time his now very generally accepted glacial theory Venet and Charpentier had to some extent paved the way for this announcement nevertheless it met with a good deal of opposition Agassiz determined to place his theory upon indisputable ground by collecting all the necessary facts himself this was the origin of periodic excursions to the glaciers at Chamonix, Tzermat and especially to the Argletsia near the Grimsel Pass Agassiz was accompanied by Carl Faucht, F. de Buchtales and Edouard de Soar while Guillaume, Forbes and others made temporary visits the Soar constituted himself in excursions he has told the story of their hardships and adventures in two books now somewhat rare Excursions et séjour dans les glaciers et les Hautes Régions des Alpes and Nouvelles Excursions Taking the Grimsel Hospice as a base of supplies this band of climbing scientists build a hut on the great moraine of the Argletsia under the shelter of an enormous block of stone their temporary home soon became known by the Hôtel des Nues Chatelois hence they could explore the surrounding regions of ice and snow at their leisure the task of measuring the march of the glaciers and of taking all manner of observations was divided among them so that an enormous amount of work was accomplished the result was Agassiz et Tuts sur les Glaciers these glacial investigations lasted some eight or nine years until 1845 then Agassiz sailed for the states and finally made his home permanently at Cambridge, Massachusetts as early as 1835 he had corresponded with Professor Silliman of Yale College and in fact had long desired to visit and explore the new world his career in America was exceedingly brilliant and his name stands for everything that is worthiest in the scientific development of that country from first to last however he resolutely rejected the theory and clung to the old-fashioned idea of independent creations when Agassiz died a block was selected from the many lying on the moraine of the argletcher to place upon his tomb it was so monumental in form that not a touch of the hammer was needed to fit it for its purpose Arnold Guyot was not the author of any startling comprehensive theory nor did his reputation ever attain the splendor of Agassiz he was rather an adapter generalizer and popularizer of ideas his name is especially identified with the work of reconciling science with religion of establishing friendly relations between the discoveries of modern science and the Bible this is the task he set himself in his work on the earth and man as a textbook his physical geography is widely known and highly prized the original work that he did in the observation of glaciers in which he collaborated with Agassiz and Dezor so that on the whole he is likely to be best known to future generations as a geographer who was able to treat his subject at once accurately and in a popular manner end of section 107 this recording is in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Devorah Allen the world's story volume 7 Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland edited by Ava March Tappen section 108 the tiny farms of Switzerland by Boyd Winchester every little scrap of ground is turned to the best account if a few square yards can anywhere be made or reclaimed the requisite labour is not grudged many of these sturdy people compel an incredibly little spot of ground to yield them enough and some to spare this surprising product from a soil much of it very poor is due to the perfection of spade work each field or rather patch has the perfection of shape given to it to facilitate cultivation and drainage this small cultivator with only spade in hand can fertilize the waste and perform prodigies which nothing but love of the land could enable him to accomplish these peasants have a proverb that if the plough has a plough share of iron the spade has a point of gold in the mountainous districts the land is reclaimed by this petite culture in fact the man makes the very soil he builds terraces along steep inclines lining them with blocks of stone and then packs the earth to them transforming the mountain and the rock into a little patch where he plants a vine or raises a little oats or maize up the heights of rocks which even goats cannot climb on the very brow of the abyss the peasant goes clinging to the precipice with iron crampers on his feet with a torch of grass he hangs on the sides of the rocks which imprison the valley and mows down a few tufts of grass from craggy shelves the hay thus gathered is called Vildhoy and the reaper Vildhoya this peasant mountain mower is essentially sui generis he is accustomed to all the perils of the mountain and the day before the mowing season begins a day fixed by communal decree he bids farewell, perhaps for the last time to his wife and children his scythe on his shoulder armed with his iron shod stick provided with his clamp irons a cloth or a net rolled up in his bag he sets out at midnight in order that the dawn may find him at his work during the two months of hay harvest he only goes down to the village three or four times to renew his supply of food or linen by this hard and perilous occupation an alpine mower makes from three to five francs a day his food not included and many times under some projecting rock he must seek a bed and pass the night once dried this wild hay is carefully gathered into a cloth or net and carried down to the first little plain where it can be made into a stack which is loaded with large stones to prevent it being blown away in winter when everything is covered with snow the mower climbs again the perpendicular sides of the mountain carrying his little wooden sludge on his shoulders he loads it with hay seats himself on the front and shoots down with the swiftness of an arrow at times the snow softened by the warm wind which blows upon the heights is detached in an avalanche behind him and swallows him up before he reaches the valley this aromatic hay composed of the nourishing flora of the high alps of delicate and succulent plants of the wild chrysanthemum the dwarf carline thistle the red-flowered Veronica the alpine milfoil with its black calyx the clover with its great tufts and the meam an unbeliferous plant gives a delicious milk and is greatly sought after for the fattening of cattle in these steep solitudes where the grass is found the life of man is so exposed and accidents are so frequent that the law forbids there should be more than one mower in a family with him it is a fight for life not infrequently conducted to the death at all times great charges of wrath hang over him a beatling crag a stream of stones a cataract of ice a moving field of snow the flash that rends his roof the wind that strips his trees the flood that drowns his land against each of these messengers of ill he must hold a separate watch and must learn to brave each danger when it comes alike by flush of noon and in the dead of night the little valley below lies at the mercy of these ice and storm engendering heights year by year the peasants fight against its being extorted from their dominion yet this feeble community in the valley by their stout hearts and virtuous lives to make it smile on the frowning mountains durum said levious patiencia qui quid corrigere es nefes it is a strange and savage reverence which the peasants feel for the mountains they seem to grow like each other in spirits even as a man and wife who live in peace grow like each other year by year with no people is the love of home and the native soil so strongly developed to return to his village in the midst of his beloved mountains is the constant dream of his life and to realize it he will endure every privation and bind himself to the hardest and most painful toil one hope possesses him to see again the snows the glaciers, the lakes the great oaks and the familiar pines of his country end of section 108