The

keep as closely as possible to his original. various puns, rude attempts at pleasantry, and disproportioned episodes, must be set down to Tehudi's account, or to the taste of his age.

The military antiquary will derive some amusement from the minute particulars which the martial poet has recorded. The mode in which the Austrian men-at-arms received the charge of the Swiss was by forming a phalanx, which they defended with their long lances. The gallant Winkelried, who sacrificed his own life by rushing among the spears, clasping in his arms as many as he could grasp, and thus opening a gap in these iron battalions, is celebrated in Swiss history. When fairly mingled together, the unwieldy length of their weapons, and cumbrous weight of their defensive armour, rendered the Austrian men-at-arms a very unequal match for the light-armed mountaineers. The victories obtained by the Swiss over the German chivalry, hitherto deemed as formidable on foot as on horseback, led to important changes in the art of war. The poet describes the Austrian knights and squires as cutting the peaks from their boots ere they could act upon foot, in allusion to an inconvenient piece of foppery, often mentioned in the middle ages. Leopold III., Archduke of Austria, called "The handsome man-atarms," was slain in the battle of Sempach, with the flower of his chivalry.

'TWAS when among our linden trees The bees had housed in swarms, (And gray-hair'd peasants say that these Betoken foreign arms,)

Then look'd we down to Willisow, The land was all in flame;

We knew the Archduke Leopold With all his army came.

The Austrian nobles made their vow,
So hot their hearts and bold,
"On Switzer carles we'll trample now,
And slay both young and old."

With clarion loud, and banner proud, From Zurich on the lake,

In martial pomp and fair array,

Their onward march they make.

"Now list ye, lowland nobles all

Ye seek the mountain strand, Nor wot ye what shall be your lot In such a dangerous land.

"I rede ye, shrive you of your sins Before you further go;

A skirmish in Helvetian hills
May send your souls to wo."

"But where now shall we find a priest, Our shrift that he may hear?" "The Switzer priest* has ta'en the field, He deals a penance drear.

* All the Swiss clergy who were able to bear arms fought in this patriotic war.

"Right heavily upon your head He'll lay his hand of steel; And with his trusty partizan Your absolution deal."

'Twas on a Monday morning then, The corn was steep'd in dew, And merry maids had sickels ta'en, When the host to Sempach drew.

The stalwart men of fair Lucerne
Together have they join'd;
The pith and core of manhood stern-
Was none cast looks behind.

It was the Lord of Hare castle,

And to the duke he said, "Yon little band of brethren true Will meet us undismay'd."

"O Hare-castle, thou heart of hare!" Fierce Oxenstern replied;

"Shalt see then how the game will fare," The taunting knight replied.

There was lacing then of helmets bright,
And closing ranks amain;

The peaks they hew'd from their boot-points
Might well nigh load a wain.t

And thus they to each other said, "Yon handful down to hew Will be no boastful tale to tell, The peasants are so few."

The gallant Swiss confederates there,
They pray'd to God aloud,

And he display'd his rainbow fair
Against a swarthy cloud.

Then heart and pulse throbb'd more and more With courage firm and high,

And down the good confederates bore

On the Austrian chivalry.

The Austrian lion‡ 'gan to growl,
And toss his main and tail;
And ball, and shaft, and crossbow bolt
Went whistling forth like hail.

Lance, pike, and halberd, mingled there,
The game was nothing sweet;
The boughs of many a stately tree
Lay shiver'd at their feet.

The Austrian men-at-arms stood fast,
So close their spears they laid:
It chafed the gallant Winkelried,
Who to his comrades said-

In the original, Haasenstein, or Hare-stone. This seems to allude to the preposterous fashion, during the middle ages, of wearing boots with the points or peaks turned upwards, and so long that, in some cases, they were fastened to the knees of the wearer with small chains. When they alighted to fight upon foot, it would seem that the Austrian gentlemen found it necessary to cut off these peaks, that they might move with the neces sary activity.

A pun on the archduke's name, Leopold.

* The royal colours.

The allusion is to the massacre of the Swiss guards, on the fatal 10th of August, 1792. It is painful, but not useless, to remark, that the passive temper with which the Swiss regarded the death of their bravest countrymen, mercilessly slaughtered in discharge of their duty, encou raged and authorized the progressive injustice by which the Alps, once the seat of the most virtuous and free people upon the continent, have, at length, been converted into the citadel of a foreign and military despot. A state degraded is half enslaved.