en despotism
rouses them to insurrection, rusty battle-axes, pikes and halberts, and
two-handed swords, which their ancestors, in descending into the grave,
had left behind them. They drew up in the form of a solid wedge, to
pierce the thick concentric wall of steel, apparently as impenetrable as
the cliffs of the mountains. Thus the two bodies silently and sternly
approached each other. It was a terrific hour; for every man knew that
one or the other of those hosts must perish utterly. For some time the
battle raged, while the confederates could make no impression whatever
upon their steel-clad foes, and sixty of them fell pierced by spears
before one of their assailants had been even wounded.

Despair was fast settling upon their hearts, when Arnold of Winkelreid,
a knight of Underwalden, rushed from the ranks of the confederates,
exclaiming--

"I will open a passage into the line; protect, dear countrymen, my wife
and children."

He threw himself upon the bristling spears. A score pierced his body;
grasping them with the tenacity of death, he bore them to the earth as
he fell. His comrades, emulating his spirit of self-sacrifice, rushed
over his bleeding body, and forced their way through the gate thus
opened into the line. The whole unwieldy mass was thrown into confusion.
The steel-clad warriors, exhausted before the battle commenced, and
encumbered with their heavy armor, could but feebly resist their nimble
assailants, who outnumbering them and over-powering them, cut them down
in fearful havoc. It soon became a general slaughter, and not less than
two thousand of the followers of Leopold were stretched lifeless upon
the ground. Many were taken prisoners, and a few, mounting their horses,
effected an escape among the wild glens of the Alps.

In this awful hour Leopold developed magnanimity and heroism worthy of
his name. Before the battle commenced, his friends urged him to take
care of his own person.

"God forbid," said he, "that I should endeavor to save my own life and
leave you to die! I will share your fate, and, with you, will either
conquer or perish."

When all was in confusion, and his followers were falling like autumn
leaves around him, he was urged to put spurs to his horse, and,
accompanied by his body-guard, to escape.

"I would rather die honorably," said Leopold, "than live with dishonor."

Just at this moment his standard-bearer was struck down by a rush of the
confederates. As he fell