DELIVERY OF THE FOUR SWISS FOREST DISTRICTS, (WALDSTALLE.)

TAKEN FROM TSCHUDI'S SWISS CHRONICLE.

AEGIDIUS TSCHUDI, (pronounced Chudi,) was born at Glarus, in Switzerland, in 1505, and of good family. He pursued a regular course of studies in his native country, and afterwards went to Paris. Protestants and Roman Catholics, among his countrymen, esteemed him alike, and intrusted him with important employments. He was chosen Landamman, or chief magistrate of Glarus, and died in 1572. His Swiss Chronicle is one of the most distinguished works of the kind. He collected, with unabated zeal, from all sources accessible to him, among which the archives of his country were the most important. His work was published only as far as the year 1470, although he had collected manuscripts for the history of one more century. The title of the work is 'Aegidii Tschudii Landamman of Glarus, Chronicon Helveticum; or, Accurate Description of the most Remarkable Events in the Holy Roman Empire, as well as, in particular, in the Honorable (Swiss) Confederacy, and neighboring Places. The whole collected from authentic Letters and Documents, &c., in the chief Archives of the Honorable Confederacy. Edited by R. Irelin.' Tschudi's Chronicle is written in the Swiss dialect of German.

Albert, the son of the German Emperor, Rudolph of Hapsburg, desired to erect a new dukedom in Helvetia, or Switzerland, which should depend upon his family, so that all the attered domains appertaining to the family, between which the territory of the intended dukedom lay, should be more firmly united. When he had acquired the imperial crown, after the defeat of his opponent, Adolphus of Nassau, he proposed to the free inhabitants of the Swiss districts, Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, to exchange their direct dependence on the Germanic empire, of which they were members, for the more powerful protection of the House of Austria, or Hapsburg. Contrary to the rights of these Swiss, Albert had appointed over them Austrian,

instead of imperial, officers. The Swiss complained, and asked for the appointment of imperial bailiffs, or landvogts. Albert did, indeed, appoint such, but in a manner greatly to harass the formerly contented mountaineers. In brief, the struggle was between Austrian power and Swiss independence. To this struggle, relates the following extract from Tschudi, Volume I., Book 4.

ANNO DOMINI, 1304, when the districts of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, were sorely oppressed, in that the bailiffs of Lucern of Rotenburg, officers of the dukes of Austria, administered high justice with them, which now had lasted three years. The Swiss were afraid, that this beginning might end in Austrian dominion over them, as though they were subjects to Austria; especially, as some of the commissioners had dropped, when administering criminal justice, that they did so in the name of Austria, [that is, not as officers of the German empire.] The mentioned districts, therefore, saw necessary to send, once more, their earnest message to King Albert,* in order to request him to send them an imperial bailiff, who should administer justice in the name of the empire, according to ancient usage; and also respectfully to pray his royal dignity, that he would protect their imperial and regal liberties and ancient customs. They would not pray for their confirmation, since, on former occasions, it had always been in vain.

When this request was made, the King became angry, because he saw, that, neither by good words, kindness, nor intrigues, he had succeeded in making them subject to his sons, the princes of Austria, or in disuniting them. He said to the messengers, “Go home, since it must be so, and you will have it; we will give you imperial bailiffs in your countries. Ye shall obey their orders, in all things, as if ourselves; and, if ye shall not do it, we shall revenge it on your lives and goods, and ye shall, henceforth, have forfeited all your privileges."

*The head of the German empire was called King, until actually crowned as Emperor. When a successor was elected, while the Emperor was yet living, he was likewise called King.

Shortly thereupon, the King sent them two landvogts, (bailiffs,) in the name of the empire, and ordered them to reside in their country, which had never been the custom.

In the year 1305, the three lands, Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, sent their respectful messages to King Albert, to complain of the severity and cruelty, with which his vogts, Gessler and Landenberg, treated them, and to beg his royal Highness graciously to abolish this ill-usage, and to protect them in their liberties and customs. But the King would not hear them. Yet he allowed them to appear before his counsellors. To them, the messengers told the tyranny of the landvogts, how they oppressed the country people, for trifling causes, and frequently without any cause, or honest, just evidence, against their privileges and liberties; how they imprisoned them in towers or stocks; fined them, also; sometimes, drove them out of the country; and, many times, suffered them to rot and perish in the prisons, &c.

The royal counsellors, after having consulted, gave answer: They (the three lands) should consider, that they, themselves, had caused this severity, and had made the King ungracious, since they would not act like those of Lucern, Glarus, and others; and, if they should ever do the same, they would then, without fail, enjoy full favor from the King, and his sons, the dukes of Austria. They should now return, the King being burdened with much business; but, at a proper time, they, the counsellors, would lay their prayer before him.

With this, they were obliged to return, without any other answer; and, when they came home, it became worse than ever, the vogts beginning to be still more cruel.

In this year, (1306,) at the beginning of the fall of the leaf, the lord of Wolfenschiessen, King's bailiff in the castle of Rotzberg, in Unterwalden, below the Kernwald, rode toward Engelberg, into the convent there; and when, on the morrow, he left the convent, he found the wife of a godly countryman, called Cunrat of Baumgarten, who was of Atzelen, in a meadow, where she was at work; for Atzelen is situated below the wood, near the road from Stans to Engelberg, not far behind the village of

Wolfenschiessen, upon a rising ground. The woman was wonderfully beautiful, and the bailiff was kindled in wicked desire, on account of her beauty. So he asks the woman, where her husband was? The woman answers, that he had gone out, and was not at home. He asks, again, when he would come home. The woman was not aware, that all this conversation was on her account, but feared, that her husband might have done something, that had displeased, so that the bailiff would punish him, because he asked, so carefully, where he was; for she knew his cruel disposition; therefore, she answered, she believed he would be absent for some days, she could not say how long; (yet she knew, very well, that he was in the wood, and would be home for dinner.) When the bailiff heard this, he spoke to the woman: “Woman, I shall go home with thee, for I have to say something to thee." The woman startled, but durst not contradict him, and went with him. When there, he ordered her to prepare a bath, for that the walking had made him tired and dusty. Then the woman apprehended nothing good, and longed, in her mind, for her husband, that he might soon come from the wood, and unwillingly prepared the bath. And, when the bath was prepared, the vogt began to show his wickedness, and desired her to bathe with him. The woman trembled, for she could well see, that he meant to use violence; she prayed to God, in her heart, to protect her honor, and avert her degradation. And now she thought upon a scheme, spoke kindly with the vogt, as if she would do as he desired, and said to him, he ought to tell his servants, (of whom he had two with him,) to go away; after that, she would join him in the bath. The vogt bade the servants go away, and the woman told him to go into the bath; she, in the mean time, would prepare herself, in her room, and soon join him. The vogt did as she desired. But the woman went out of the back-door, and meant to stand there; when presently comes her husband, to whom, with tears, and a low voice, she whispers what the tyrant had intended with her, and how he was now in the bath. The honest man said, "Praised be the Lord, my pious wife, that he has protected thee, that thou hast saved thine

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honor; I'll bless his bath, that he shall injure no more women; for it is better that I wager my life, than that any shame should befall thee, my beloved wife. Whereupon, he quickly went into the house, and knocked the bailiff on the head, with his axe, that he died with one blow. The man fled, immediately, to Uri, where he remained in secret, although diligently pursued, on account of the shameful deed which the vogt had intended to perpetrate.

Anno Domini, 1307, there was a godly countryman in Unterwalden, above the Kernwald, who was called Henry von Melchtal, and resided in the same valley, (that is, at Melchtal) a wise, judicious, honorable, and substantial man, and well esteemed among the country folks, and always actively maintaining, that they should stick to their privileges, and not allow themselves to be separated from the empire, for which Beringer of Landenberg, landvogt over the whole of Unterwalden, was very hostile to him. This Melchtal had fine cattle; and, for some trifling offence, which his son Arnold of Melchtal, was said to have committed, (which, however, the same denied, and, had it been true, the honestly-awarded fine could not have amounted to more than five shillings,) the landvogt sent his servants, to seize upon his finest yoke of oxen, as a fine due to him; and should the old Henry of Melchtal object to it, the servant should answer, that it was the vogt's opinion, the peasants themselves should pull the plough, and upon this, he should seize the oxen, and bring them to him. The servant did as the master had bid him. The honest man did not like that his own should be taken from him, by force, and said, his son was not guilty, and if the vogt had any right against him, he should prove it by law, and then punish; but the servant insisted upon having the oxen, as he had been ordered. And when he unyoked them, the son of the farmer, Ar nold, (who was a young man,) kindled in wrath, and gave a blow, with a stick, over the hand of the servant, and broke one of his fingers, upon which he forthwith_fled from out the land, to Uri, where he hid himself, for a long while, with one of his kinsfolks, and where Cunrat of