Rousseau wrote of this rather grandiloquently:—“The generous nation received its baptism of blood; this night put our ancestors beside the men of Sempach and Morgarten; they defended their freedom like men who could not understand how life could be separated from liberty.”
That very year the Landgrave of Hesse was visiting Geneva incognito and he composed a Latin epigram beginning:—
“Quisquis amat vitam sobriam castamque tueri,”
which has been Englished in the quaint old style of long ago:—
“A strict and sober life if you’d embrace
Let chast Geneva be your dwelling-place;
Or would you lead a lawless life and free
The same Geneva your abode must be.
Convenience here for either life is found—