covenant sworn."

In Italy, the honorable closing act of the year 1512 now took place. At
the gates of Milan, in presence of the imperial, papal and Spanish
deputies, the burgomaster Schmied of Zurich handed over to the young
duke Maximilian Sforza the keys of his conquered capital, and the
bailiff Schwarzmauer of Zug received him with a Latin oration. It were
well, if the intervention of the Confederates in Italian affairs had
ended here, and a strong national resolve, to keep what they had won,
and leave what is foreign to the care of foreigners, had gained the
ascendency. But already baits were again thrown out by the Pope, the
Emperor and France, and were soon followed by scenes, more stormy, more
disgraceful, more tragic, out of which the battles of Novara and
Marignano rise in bloody trappings.

For several years the eyes of Zwingli had been fully opened to the
destructive influence, which foreign mercenary service exerted on a
free state. Whether he accompanied the banner of Glarus twice, or only
once more into Italy cannot now be accurately determined. Bullinger
alone states that he was present at Novara, confounding probably this
expedition with one of an earlier date. It is certain, however, that he
took part in the campaign of 1515, for, six days previous to the battle
of Marignano, he preached in the square before the town-hall in Monza.
"Had we followed his counsel," says Werner Steiner, who at the side of
his father, the landamman of Zug, listened to the sermon,--"much less
blood would have been shed, and the Confederates saved from great harm."
But dissension reigned in their ranks, which were crippled by French
gold and promises, and they, who did remain faithful, lacked _one_
leader around whom to rally.

The terrific battle of Marignano had ended in a dreadful defeat. Voices
of lamentation, reproach, and repentance met those, who found their way
back to their native land and resounded here and there also from the
pulpit. Zwingli, who himself had been an eye-witness of the whole
calamity, believed it his duty, as teacher in the chief-town of the
little republic, not to keep silent.

Before men of rank and influence, who even in Glarus, though compelled
for the moment to remain quiet, soon gave themselves up again, at first
cautiously but afterwards without shame, to the seductions of renewed
bribery, sticking to that conqueror, who before had rewarded them so
gloriously, and began to further the int