for territorial expansion that the Swiss began to
feel an encroachment upon their independence. In 1291, the
year of Rudolph's death, the three cantons, fearing danger
to their interests in the new settlement of the crown,
formed a league for mutual protection and cooperation. The
very parchment on which the terms of this union were written
"has been preserved as a testimony to the early independence
of the Forest Cantons, the Magna Charta of Switzerland." The
formation of this confederacy may be regarded as the first
combined preparation of the Swiss for that great struggle in
defence of their liberties, in the history of which fact and
legend, as shown in Baker's discriminating narrative, are
romantically blended.

The empire passed out of the Hapsburg control when Rudolph
died, but the family again got possession of it in 1298,
when Rudolph's son Albert was elected German king. In the
following account the relations of Switzerland and Austria,
under the renewed Hapsburg sovereignty, are circumstantially
set forth.

There can be little doubt that most of the many stories related by the
Swiss of the cruelty and extortion of the Austrian bailies are wholly or
in great part devoid of a historical basis of truth, as are the dates
given for their occurrence. They doubtless sprang from the very natural
feelings of hatred the mountaineers of the Forest State felt against a
foreign master, who was probably only too ready to punish them for the
part they took against him in the struggle for the imperial throne.
Indeed, it was not till about two centuries after this period that any
reference to the alleged cruelties of the Austrians can be found in the
local records, though legends about them have been plentiful.

Many and various are the stories that have come down to our times of the
oppression and licentiousness of the bailies, most of which have
probably gained much color by constant repetition, even if they were not
wholly created by imagination and hatred of the Austrian rule. According
to these accounts, the local despots imposed exorbitant fines for
trivial offences, and frequently sent prisoners to Zug and Lucerne to be
tried by Austrian judges. They levied enormously increased taxes and
imports on every commodity, and exacted payment in the most merciless
manner; they openly violated the liberties of the people, and chose
every occasion to insult and degrade them. An oft-quoted