Fifty men, who had been banished from Schwitz in a period of civil discord, hearing of their country’s imminent danger, came to the frontier, and requested permission to serve in the army. The magistrates, whose uncalculating and resolute adherence to law, uninfluenced by expediency, has something noble in it, refused to sanction their appearance within the confines, and the exiles, equally determined in their patriotism, took post an an eminence beyond the frontier of the canton[27]. In this situation they contributed materially to the success of the day. They commenced the attack by rolling down rocks upon the Austrians as soon as they were entangled in the difficulties of the valley; and their countrymen, posted further on upon the mountain side, seized promptly on the favourable moment, and by the novel and unexpected manner of their attack, and the vigour with which they wielded their long and massive halberts, favoured by the difficulties of the ground, improved a temporary disorder into a total defeat. The disinterested bravery of the exiles was recompensed by restoration to their civil rights.
Two other attacks at other points of their frontier were defeated by these gallant mountaineers on the same day, which was ever after commemorated by the Forest Cantons as a festival, and the names of those who fell at Morgarten were recited annually by the Schwitzers in the field of Rutli, the venerated spot in which the overthrow of the Austrian tyranny was planned.
When the French invaded the Forest Cantons in 1798, Morgarten was the scene of a second struggle as brave, but less successful. They attacked simultaneously in three quarters. “On the north side Aloys Reding met them on the same ground where his ancestor, Rudolph Reding, had defeated the Austrians five hundred years before, and the narrow field of Morgarten was twice drenched with the blood of patriots and their oppressors. The women of Schwitz were employed during the whole night of the 1st of May in dragging cannon over rocks and precipices, and carrying fascines for entrenchments; many of them worked with young children on their left arm. Fires were burning on the tops of all the mountains. During the 1st and 2nd of May there was incessant firing both at Morgarten and about Arth; a militia composed of peasants and shepherds made head on this extended line against repeated attacks of regular troops four times their number without giving way, broke them several times with the bayonet, and remained masters of the field everywhere. The loss of the invaders was tenfold their own, but the latter was irreparable; a few such victories and they were annihilated; many of the men had no rest for three or four days and nights, and scarcely any food; some of the posts were only guarded by women. They were offered the free exercise of their religion, provided they adopted the Helvetic constitution, in which case the army was to leave the country immediately. Many were for fighting on; others, moved at the sight of their wives and children, wished to treat before it came to the worst. The general assembly, held on the 4th, was extremely agitated, and on the point of ending in bloodshed. At last a great majority decided in favour of the terms offered, and peace was signed on the 5th. The French loss was 2754 dead, exclusive of wounded; the people of Schwitz, 431 men and women.”[28]
Aloys Reding, a worthy descendant of a race of patriots, survived this battle some few years. Near the outlet of the Lake of Thun is a monument raised by private regard, with the single inscription, “To the memory of my friend, Aloys Reding,” which has given occasion to the following beautiful lines:
Around a wild and woody hill,
A gravelled pathway treading,
We reached a votive stone, that bears
The name of Aloys Reding.
Well judged the friend who placed it there
For silence and protection;
And haply with a finer care
Of dutiful affection.
The sun regards it from the west
Sinking in summer glory;
And while he sinks, affords a type
Of that pathetic story.