glued to their clenched fists, so that it was necessary
to bathe them long in warm water to detach them. Although the Bernois
burnt the Tour de Treme and captured sixty of the defendants, Count
Pierre and his soldiers forced them to retire, and the castle and city
of Gruyere were saved. Strong men were these knights and vassals of
Gruyere to withstand and gayly to forget the bloody assaults of their
determined foes, for in the intervals of war alarms they passed a
holiday life of jest and song. Within the circle of their starlit
heights, they nightly watched the brandon lights on peak and hilltop;
and while the sentinels in every tower scanned the wide country for a
sign of the approaching foe, within they made merry in the banqueting
hall. In the long summer afternoons, tourneys in the jousting court, or
tribunals held in the same green enclosure alternated with generous
feasts out-spread on the castle terrace for the enjoyment of the people.
Often Count Pierre would mount his horse and ride among the mountains
where he administered justice before the doors of the chalets, adopting
the orphans who were brought to him, giving dots to the daughters of the
poor, and sometimes taking part in the wrestling contests of the
herdsmen--their brother in sport--their father in misfortune. During all
the years of the fourteenth century the feudal society of Switzerland,
although so fiercely attacked by the rising bourgeoisie power, blazed
like the leaves in autumn in a passing October glory with the snows of
winter seemingly still afar. At Chambery, the court of Amedee VII of
Savoy, called Le Comte Vert from the emerald color of the velvet in
which he and his courtiers were clad, the brother rulers of Gruyere took
part in all the fetes and tourneys. Present when the great order of the
Annonciata was instituted, and again, when the emperor of Germany was
received at banquets served by knights on horseback, they sat at tables
where fountains of wine sprinkled their rubies over gilded viands in
vessels of wrought gold.

But at Gruyere the young brother rulers held a little court which for
intimate gayety and charm surpassed all others. Gallic in its love of
beauty, loving life and all its loveliest expressions, it was a court of
dance and song--the heart of hearts of Gruyere, itself the centre and
the very definition of Romand Switzerland. Often intermarried, the
Burgundian counts preserved in its perfection the blond beauty of their