soon
endeavored, sword in hand, to extend their boundaries southward, and in
1476 Livinen came under the acknowledged sovereignty of Uri, and in
1500 Bellinzona with the adjoining country under that of the Three
Cantons. In 1503 these changes were confirmed by France, which then had
the upper hand in Lombardy.

This and not as yet a corrupt liking for mercenary service was the
original occasion of the campaigns of the confederates in Italy. The
battles of Arbedo and Gierniko were fought in support of brethren whom
they were bound by oath to help. But by long-continued habit the view,
that what was passing on the other side of Gotthard could not be
indifferent to their own land, took firm root in the minds of the Swiss
statesmen, and therefore it was, that the scandalous game of intrigue
and bribery, begun by Louis XI, by which France aimed at the
destruction of the Swiss national character, had a good opportunity of
unfolding itself on Italian ground, where France under Charles VIII and
Louis XII, contrived to increase her own power, by arraying Switzers
against Switzers. Nevertheless, there were yet, even in the beginning
of the sixteenth century, some among the Swiss soldiers, engaged in the
Italian campaigns, who were animated by motives nobler than a thirst
for gold or plunder. The duty of upholding sworn treaties, and the hope
of working out a lasting peace for a frontier so exposed to invasion
might have prompted the more distinguished, but very often the common
soldiers were only stimulated by a love for weapons streaming with
blood.

The betrayal of Ludovico Sforza, surnamed Il Moro, at Novara, in 1501,
had indeed greatly shaken the confidence, hitherto nearly universal, in
the fidelity and honor of the Swiss; but even at home indignation was
awakened by it, a severe examination instituted, and the chief actor
executed at Altorf. Indeed it seems generally to have roused the better
feelings of the nation. An oath was demanded against the acceptance of
pensions and mercenary service under foreign lords; and a levy was not
only refused to the French ambassadors, who had come into the country
with new bribes, but their safe-conduct even was recalled. Although
such things were enacted by their diet, yet corrupt leaders again
practised their lures, and a crowd of reckless youth again gave ear to
them. But when France, now strongly established in her domination over
Italy by the repeated aid of these deserters, bega