The history of Switzerland is, on the other hand, advantageously distinguished by the readiness which the different members of the Helvetic League have shown to succour each other, even where ruin seemed to be the consequence of interference. Before the admission of Berne into the Confederacy, that city, being menaced by a powerful army of nobles intent upon its destruction, sent a messenger to the cantons of Schwitz, Uri, and Underwalden, called the Waldstetten, or Forest Cantons, to represent the imminence of their danger and to implore succour. The people answered, “True friends appear in the time of need: go, tell your citizens we will prove it to them.” A body of nine hundred men immediately marched to the help of the Bernese, with whose assistance the celebrated battle of Laupen was fought and gained against immensely superior forces. Nor did Berne prove ungrateful for this timely aid. At a later period, the Forest Cantons being at war with Zuric, which had been detached by Austria from the interests of the Confederacy, and being threatened by the whole power of Austria itself, sent messengers to represent their situation to the Bernese, who had always been averse to the contest, and declined engaging in it. “Dear trusty Confederates,” they said, “remember the day of Laupen, when your ancestors, being threatened with utter ruin by the nobles, sent to us, to demand our aid. We were not at that time allied to you, and yet what did we say? ‘Need,’ we said, ‘is the test of friendship.’ You have heard of the tears of joy that were shed when our banners were seen approaching to your walls; you knew what Erlach said after the victory, ‘This day shall be an everlasting pledge of our union.’ From that day we have been allies. Men of Berne, sons of the conquerors of Laupen, we are now involved in great difficulties; the power of Austria, to which Zuric has basely surrendered, bears hard upon us; numbers of ours have perished within these few days, and our enemies expect great reinforcements from distant parts. We may be overpowered. Dear trusty Confederates, Need is the test of friendship.”[37] The name and recollection of Laupen had power to overrule the suggestions of prudence; the required succours were sent, and the Swiss were victorious.
Two of the many gallant struggles made by the Swiss in defence of their liberty have already been described. A third, the battle of St. Jaques, near Basle, has been called the Swiss Thermopylæ; and the name is justified, not by the circumstances of the battle, but by the indomitable courage and uniform fate of the conquered. The Dauphin of France, afterwards Louis XI., at the head of a large army of the mercenary troops called Armagnacs, from the Counts D’Armagnac, two of their chiefs, advanced against Basle for the purpose of breaking up the council of the church then sitting there in defiance of the Pope, and to assist Frederic of Austria, the Emperor of Germany, in recovering the possessions in Switzerland which his ancestors had lost. His force consisted of 8000 English and 14,000 French, and was still further increased by the vassals of Austria. Sixteen hundred men were detached by the Swiss with orders to throw themselves into Basle at all hazards. Two of the members of the council, returning from the city, met them on the eve before the battle, and informed them of the strength of the enemy and the difficulty of reaching Basle. They replied, “If things must needs so happen to-morrow, and we cannot break by force through the said obstacles, we will consign our souls to God, and our bodies to the Armagnacs.” They advanced, and the same evening routed a corps of horse 8000 strong. “Early the next morning they arrived near a bridge over the Birs; and met emissaries from Basle, admonishing them not to attempt the passage of the river, the main army of the Dauphin being posted on its opposite banks. They might now have retreated with honour; but, flushed with the successes of the preceding day, and not doubting that, as they were now within a mile of Basle, the burghers would make a seasonable diversion in their favour, they resolved to accomplish the purpose for which they had been sent, or to perish in the attempt. They came to the bridge; but found it so strongly defended, that the forcing it was deemed wholly impracticable. They now threw themselves into the torrent, crossed it with the utmost speed, rushed up the opposite bank in the face of a numerous artillery, and began a dreadful slaughter, mowing down whole ranks of the enemy with their massive halberts, not, however, without great loss on their own part. Their forced marches, their previous conflicts, and their present arduous contest, had now so totally exhausted them, and their numbers were so greatly reduced, that in hopes of some respite they turned off to the right, and took shelter in the churchyard and orchard belonging to the hospital of St. Jacob, both surrounded by high walls. The burghers of Basle were at this critical moment preparing to send out a detachment; but the Dauphin, who expected the attempt, had posted eight thousand men on an eminence near the gate; who, had the garrison ventured the sally, would have cut off their retreat, and exposed them to inevitable destruction. The cannon of the French meanwhile had not only thrown down the walls round the hospital, but also set fire to the building; and the Confederates, in the midst of flames and ruins, found themselves at the same time exposed to the attacks of accumulated numbers, without any defence but their firmness and valour. They still might have retreated without any disparagement to their honour; but after a short consultation, they resolved to devote themselves for the good of their country, and fall together. The heroic deeds that were achieved in this memorable conflict, the number of fierce assaults this devoted band sustained and repelled, how each warrior fell successively on the identical spot he had first occupied, are facts imperfectly related, but may be well inferred from the general circumstances of the action. They fought ten hours without intermission; till at length, exhausted but not conquered, they all (twelve only excepted) lay lifeless on the field of action. Each had four or five enemies around him, whom he had despatched before his fall. Burcard Monk, the faithless guide of the invaders, riding in the evening over the field of slaughter, exclaimed triumphantly, ‘This is indeed a bath of roses!’ An expiring Swiss heard him, raised himself on his knees, snatched a large stone, and hurled it at the head of the vaunting traitor, who died three days after of the contusion. The twelve who, when no hopes remained, retired from the carnage, with difficulty escaped the hands of the executioner, to which the law of Sempach doomed all who turned away from an enemy.
“The Dauphin concealed the number of his slain, by causing them to be immediately committed to the flames; but six hundred dead horses found on the field sufficiently evinced the magnitude of his loss. Fearful of such another victory, he drew off his forces into Alsace, committed depredations on both sides of the Rhine, and gave the Emperor ample reason to repent of having, called in such auxiliaries. After his retreat, the burghers of Basle gathered the bodies of the Confederates, and with solemn obsequies buried them in the churchyard of St. Jacob.”[38] Six thousand French are reported to have fallen. Æneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., was present at the council of Basle, and gives a lively description of the battle in one of his letters. “Here was fought a stern and piteous battle. The Swiss tore the bloody arrows from their bodies; those even who had a hand lopped off rushed on the enemy and took a life in exchange for their own. Four Armagnacs attacked one Switzer, and felled him, when a comrade rushed upon them, grasping his battle-axe, and slew two; the others fled. He carried off the yet breathing body to his comrades. Behind the Swiss there was a walled orchard, which they thought would protect them, so that they would only have to fight to the front. But the Germans and Armagnacs undermined the wall, which was the chief cause of the destruction of the Swiss. They fought in front and to the rear, man to man, sword to sword. The Swiss, like lions, forced their way unconquered through the army, slaying and overturning all, as men who know that they fight with no hope of victory, but to avenge their death: the battle lasted from the dawn till evening. At length the Swiss fell amidst the mighty host of the enemy, not conquered, but rather weary with conquering. A mournful and most bloody victory was it to the Armagnacs, and the field remained in their possession, from their superiority, not in bravery, but in numbers.”
The law of Sempach, which is mentioned above, furnishes a good specimen of the simplicity and resolution of the Swiss character. Modern treaties of alliance are hardly so brief, so emphatic, or so well observed.
“We, the eight Helvetic Cantons, and the city and district of Soleure, agree to preserve peace and unanimity amongst ourselves, and to uphold each other, so that every individual may enjoy perfect security in his house, and be no ways molested either in his person or property. All traders shall be protected in their persons and merchandise. No one shall wantonly give cause for dissension, or be accessory in fomenting animosities; but when a war cannot be avoided, and our banners advance against an enemy, each of us will, after the example of our forefathers in their many perils, firmly unite, and march out together to redress our wrongs. Whoever deviates from his duty, or otherwise transgresses the laws, and is convicted thereof by two credible witnesses before the tribunal to which he is amenable, shall be sentenced to personal or pecuniary correction. Should any one in battle, or at an attack, be wounded so as to be disabled from service, he shall nevertheless retain his station, and continue there amidst his companions, until the conflict is terminated, and danger is at an end. On no account must the field of battle be deserted: and (as an enemy has often rallied among the pillagers; and lately, at Sempach, the foe would have sustained greater loss had not our men been too eager after booty) no one shall betake himself to spoil until permitted by the commander. All the plunder taken shall be delivered to the commander, who shall make an equal distribution of it according to the number of men from each canton. Since Almighty God has declared churches to be his habitation, and has been pleased to effect the salvation of mankind by means of a woman, it is our will and positive decree that none of us shall break open, pillage, or burn, any church or chapel, or any way insult or molest a woman: this law shall suffer no exception, unless when enemies or their property are secreted in sanctuaries, or when women by their clamours impede the progress of our force. This we ordain, accept, and confirm by oath, at a general diet held at Zuric, on the 10th of July, in the year of our Lord 1393.”
Vertot, in his History of the Knights of Malta, relates a striking anecdote of similar courage and devotion. “When the Turks besieged that island in 1565, John de la Valette being then Grand Master, they first attacked the castle of St. Elmo, an outpost too small and too distant from the main works to hold out long against their continual assaults. The knights who were quartered there made a gallant resistance, but their cannon being dismounted, their defences breached, and their numbers thinned, they sent a deputation to the Grand Master to represent the deplorable condition of the place, that it was no longer tenable, and that sending over reinforcements to them was worse than useless, because it insensibly consumed the troops necessary for the defence of the island. Most of the Grand Crosses, who composed the council of the Order, coincided with these views, but the Grand Master was of a contrary opinion. He agreed, indeed, that the fort was not tenable, and owned that he could not but lament the fate of the knights who in so dangerous a post were exposed to daily death; but he insisted that there are some circumstances in which it is necessary to hazard some of the limbs to save the body. The Viceroy of Sicily, to whom they looked for relief, had declared, that if that fort were lost he would not attempt to save the island. The whole safety of Malta, therefore, depended on the length of the siege, and it was absolutely necessary to protract it as long as possible. The Council came over to his opinion, and with their concurrence he impressed on the garrison that the preservation or loss of the island, and, perhaps, of the Order itself, depended on the time that they should hold out the place, and bade them call to mind the vows they had made at their profession, and that they were obliged to sacrifice their lives for the defence of the Order. Finally, he would not fail to send such reinforcements as the smallness of the fort would admit of, and, if necessary, would throw himself into the place, and there die with them.”
After a series of bloody assaults, from the 24th of May to the 21st of June, the garrison were reduced to extremity. They sent a swimmer across the port to the Grand Master, to request succour, and five large boats were soon fitted out and filled with knights. But the shore was now lined with Turkish artillery, and they were unable to effect a landing. “The besieged in the fort being now out of all hopes of succour, thought of nothing but ending their lives like good Christians and true religious. For which purpose they were all night long preparing themselves for it, by receiving the sacraments of the church: when this was over, and that nothing remained but the giving up their souls to God, they embraced one another with tenderness, and retired to their several posts in order to die with their weapons in their hands, and expire in the bed of honour. Such as were not able to walk by reason of their wounds, had themselves carried in chairs to the side of the breach, where, armed with swords, which they held with both their hands, they waited with a heroic resolution till such time as their enemies, towards whom they were not able to advance, should come and attack them in their posts.
“The next day, the 23rd of June, the Turks, at daybreak, came on to the assault with great shouts, as if they were going to a victory which it would be impossible to dispute with them. But the Christian soldiers defended themselves with invincible bravery; one would have thought that the certainty of an approaching death which they were to share in common with the knights, had put them on the same level with respect to courage. They advanced to meet the enemy with as much intrepidity as if they had beaten them, and such as could not walk fired on the enemy with their pieces; and when by reason of their continual discharges they had spent all their powder, they supplied themselves from the pouches of their comrades who had dropped by their side: in fine, the knights having sustained an assault for four hours together, had but sixty persons left to defend the breach; but these were something more than men, who, by a noble contempt of death, still made their enemies tremble. The commander, seeing the place on the point of being forced by the Turks, recalled some Christian soldiers, who till then had maintained themselves upon the cavalier which lay before the fort. The basha, seeing the breach fortified with this small reinforcement, discontinued the assault in an instant, as if he had again been disheartened by so obstinate a resistance, and pretended to retire, but it was only to make his janissaries seize, not only on the cavalier, which was abandoned, but likewise on all such points as were higher than the breach, and overlooked the inside of the fort. The besieged employed this little suspension from fighting in dressing their wounds, not so much for the sake of preserving the poor remains of life as to enable themselves to fight for some moments longer with greater vigour. At eleven in the morning the Turks returned to the assault with new strength, and the janissaries, who from the top of the cavalier and other posts commanded the place with their muskets, pointed out all such persons as they had a mind to kill. The greater part of them perished by the enemies’ fire; the bailiff of Negropont, together with most of the knights and soldiers that were left, being overwhelmed with numbers, died upon the breach; and this terrible assault was discontinued only for lack of combatants, not ending but with the death of the last knight.”[39]
The struggle recently concluded in Greece has been well calculated to awaken the sleeping energies of her people. It is, however, too recent, and the present generation has suffered too severely from the misrule and ignorance under which it was nurtured, for us either to judge severely their past faults and mistakes, or to augur over boldly concerning their future policy and conduct. That much of selfishness, cabal, and perfidy occurred in the late war, and materially retarded the expulsion of the Turks, is certain; but no one can now assert that Hellenic courage is extinct, and, for Hellenic virtue, we hope to see it much more prominent in the national character than it ever yet has been. The Greeks have long been considered a degraded race: the more civilized, and especially the trading part of them, proverbially mean and dishonest; the mountaineers possessed of the few and capricious virtues, together with the many vices, of barbarians. The time for these general charges is now at an end. From henceforth Greece, we trust, will again rank among the independent nations of Europe: it depends on herself whether she will merit the affection and sympathy which the recollection of her former splendour and long suffering inspires. Nor do we hesitate to believe that she will do so, and to appeal in proof of this to the number of her sons who for years have frequented happier parts of Europe for the sake of a more enlightened and extended education than they could obtain at home. Those who worked their deliverance from a bondage of such ancient date, were necessarily tainted with the vices which that bondage engendered: but as the advantages which the rising generation has possessed become more general, and as they succeed to the place and influence of their fathers, who can doubt but that the governors will learn to prefer the general good to their own factions, and corrupt and precarious interests, and the people to appreciate the blessing of internal order, to form true judgments of the national welfare, and to compel attention to it?
On the breaking out of the revolution the students dispersed among the European universities were among the first to offer themselves as soldiers in support of it. Armed in the European manner, they enrolled themselves in a corps called ἳερος λοχος, the sacred band, a title taken from the brief period of Theban splendour under Epaminondas, and assumed as the motto of their standards θανατος ἠ ἐλευθρια, death or freedom, and the inscription of the Spartan shield, ἠ τὰν ἠ ἐπὶ τὰν,[40] this, or upon this. The greater part had never felt hardship, nor handled a military weapon before, yet they endured fatigue, privation, and discipline with submission and fortitude, setting an example to the rest which was badly followed. There were about 500 men of this corps with Alexander Ypsilante in his last campaign in Moldavia, on whom he justly placed his chief reliance, and their bravery and unfortunate fate is worthy to be placed by the side of the story of Thermopylæ.