Swiss
confederates with terror in advance of their approach. Letters declaring
war were sent to the confederate assembly by twenty distinct expresses,
with the hope that this rapid succession of threats would overwhelm them
with fear. The separate nobles followed with their declarations. On St.
John's day a messenger arrived from Wuertemberg bearing fifteen
declarations of war. Hardly had these letters been read when nine more
arrived, sent by John Ulric of Pfirt and eight other nobles. Others
quickly followed; it fairly rained declarations of war; the members of
the assembly had barely time to read one batch of threatening
fulminations before another arrived. Letters from the lords of Thurn
came after those named, followed by a batch from the nobles of
Schaffhausen. This seemed surely enough, but on the following day the
rain continued, eight successive messengers arriving, who bore no less
than forty-three declarations of war.

It seemed as if the whole north was about to descend in a cyclone of
banners and spears upon the mountain land. The assembly sat breathless
under this torrent of threats. Had their hearts been open to the
invasion of terror they must surely have been overwhelmed, and have
waited in the supineness of fear for the coming of their foes.

But the hearts of the Swiss were not of that kind. They were too full of
courage and patriotism to leave room for dismay. Instead of awaiting
their enemies with dread, a burning impatience animated their souls. If
liberty or death were the alternatives, the sooner the conflict began
the more to their liking it would be. The cry of war resounded through
the country, and everywhere, in valley and on mountain, by lake-side and
by glacier's rim, the din of hostile preparation might have been heard,
as the patriots arranged their affairs and forged and sharpened their
weapons for the coming fray.

Far too impatient were they to wait for the coming of Leopold and his
army. There were Austrian nobles and Austrian castles within their land.
No sooner was the term of the armistice at an end than the armed
peasantry swarmed about these strongholds, and many a fortress, long the
seat of oppression, was taken and levelled with the ground. The war-cry
of Leopold and the nobles had inspired a different feeling from that
counted upon.

It was not long before Duke Leopold appeared. At the head of a large and
well-appointed force, and attended by many distinguished knights an