THE COUNTS OF GRUYÈRE BY MRS. REGINALD DE KOVEN ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK DUFFIELD & COMPANY 1916 Copyright, 1916, by DUFFIELD & CO. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PROLOGUE 3 I. ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE 7 II. INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH 14 III. SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY 25 IV. FOREIGN WARS 46 V. THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (COUNT FRANÇOIS I) 57 VI. THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (COUNT LOUIS) 67 VII. STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESSION 85 VIII. RELIGIOUS REFORM 94 IX. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF GRUYÈRE 105 X. GRUYÈRE WITHOUT ITS COUNTS 128 APPENDIX 139 BIBLIOGRAPHY 141 ILLUSTRATIONS LA PLACE DE GRUYÈRE _Frontispiece_ _From a watercolour by Colonel R. Goff_ THE CHÂTEAU _Facing p. _ 10 GATEWAY " 22 LACE-MAKERS " 38 FORTIFIED HOUSES--NORTH WALL " 56 THE CITY ON THE HILL " 72 TERRACE OF THE CHÂTEAU " 90 CHURCH OF ST. THEODATE " 112 JOUSTING COURT " 132 * * * * * THE COUNTS OF GRUYÈRE * * * * * BIS SEPTEM SEACULA CURRENT MOENIA FUNDAVIT BELLO FORTISSIMUS HAEROS VANDALUS ATQUE SUO SIGNAVIT NOMINE MUROS GRUS VIXIT AGNOMEN COMITE DEDIT ADVENA PRIMO RUBEA GRUEM VEXILLA AC SCUTI PILOSI SUSTENTENT QUORUM EUTIS PARRIDA RUGIS AC ARMATA MANUS VULSIS RADICIBUS ARAE EST HUIC CELEBRIS SERVES ET LONGA PROPAGO NEPOTUM DIVES OPUM OLIVES PIETA VESTIS AURIS EXTITIT ET NOSTRIS PER PLURIMA SAECULA TERRAS PRAEFUIT GRUERIUS SEXTAE LEGIONIS VANDALORUM DUX ANNO 436 _Behold now twice seven centuries. --That a Vandal hero bravest among warriors. --Founded this fortress. --This fortified city has since preserved the name of the Grue. --The stranger became the first count. --His descendants carried the Grue on their scarlet banners. --And on their hairy shields. --To the Vandal hero succeeded a long line of illustrious descendants. --Rich in fortune, rich in their piety. --These Counts won the order of the golden vest. --And for many centuries the posterity of Gruerius. --Chief of the sixteenth Vandal legion who lived in the year 436 governed our country. _ PROLOGUE On the edge of a green plain around which rise the first steps of theimmense amphitheatre of the Alps, a little castled city enthroned on asolitary hill watches since a thousand years the eternal and surpassingspectacle. Around its feet a river runs, a silver girdle bending northward betweenpastures green, while eastward over the towering azure heights thesunrise waves its flags of rose and gold. In the dim hours of twilight or by a cloudy moonlight, the city pitchedamid the drifting aerial heights seems built itself of air and cloud, evanescent and unreal. By the fair light of noonday, sharp and clear upon its eminence, it islike a Dürer drawing, massed lines of crenelated bastions, sharp-pointed belfreys, and towered gateways completing a mediævalvignette ideal in composition. Strange as the distant vision seems tothe traveler fresh from the rude and time-stained chalets of themountains, still more surprising is the scene which greets his arrivalby the precipitous road, past the double towered gateway, within thecity walls. Expressly set it seems for a theatrical _décor_ in itssmiling gayety, its faultlessly pictorial effect. Every window in theblazoned houses is blossoming with brightest flowers, as for a perpetualfête. The voices of the people are soft with a strange Italianatepatois, and the women at the fountain, the children at their play, theold men sunning themselves beside the deep carved doorways are seeminglyliving the happy holiday life which belongs to the picture. The onestreet in the city, opening widely in a long oval _place_, is bounded bystone houses fortified without and bearing suspended galleries forobservation and defence, forming thus a continuous rampart along thewhole extent of the hillside. At the eastern extremity of this enclosure beyond the slender belfrey ofthe Hotel de Ville and the ancient shrine where a great crucifix looksdown upon the scene, a flagged pathway rises sharply under a tall clocktower within the enceinte of the castle set at the steep extremity ofthe ridge. There behind strong walls a terrace looks from a crenelatedparapet over the descending sunset plains, a prospect as fair as any inall Italy. Within a second rampart, semi-circular in form, the castlewith its interior court looks eastward and southward over the encirclingvalley with its winding river, up to the surrounding nether heights ofthe Bernese Oberland. Walls twelve feet in thickness tell the history ofits ancient construction, and chambers cut in the massive stonefoundations recall the rude life of the early knights and vassals whodefended this _château-fort_ from the Saracen invasion. Noble halls, later superimposed upon the earlier foundations, with stone benchesflanking the walls and recessed windows overlooking the jousting court, evoke the glittering days of chivalry and the vision of the sovereignrace of counts who here held their court. Ten centuries have passed over this castle on the hill; six told thestory of its sovereignty over the surrounding country, but unlike mostof the châteaux of Switzerland it has been carefully restored andmaintains its feudal character. The caparisoned steeds no longer gallopalong the ancient road, the crested knights no longer break their lancesin the jousting court; but in the wide street of the little city isheard a speech, and in the valleys and from the hillsides echoherdsmen's songs, which contain Latin and French words, Greek, Saracenand German, a patois holding in solution the long story of the past. GRUYÈRE CHAPTER I ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE Triply woven of the French, German and Italian races, the Swiss nationdiscovers in its Romand or French strain another triple weave ofCeltic-Romand-Burgundian descent. While the high mountainous regions of eastern Switzerland were earlyscaled and settled by the Germanic tribes, the western were stillearlier inhabited by the ancient Celtic-Helvetians and then civilizedand cultivated by the most luxurious of Roman colonies. Resisting firstand then happily mingling with their Roman conquerors, the Celtic peoplewere transformed into a Romand race, similar in speech and origin to theFrench. In the heart of this Romand country was an ancient principalitywhere the essential qualities of the beauty loving and imaginativeraces, Roman and Celtic, expressed themselves uniquely. A fountain ofCeltic song and legend, a centre of chivalry and warlike power, thisprincipality is known only to the outer world by the pastoral productwhich bears its name "Gruyère. " Remarkable in the interest of the unbroken line of its valorous andlovable princes, and in the precious and enchanting race mixture of itsbrave, laughter-loving people, its supreme historical interest lies inits little recorded and astonishing political significance among theindependent feudal principalities of Europe. When the Teuton barbarians came to devastate the enchanting lovelinessof the templed Roman garden which was Switzerland for three idylliccenturies, they stopped at last at the penultimate peaks of theOccidental Alps, at a certain region called _aux fenils_ (_ad fines_), where a glacial stream rushes across the narrow valley of the Griesbach, among the southern mountains of the Bernese Oberland. Thus western orRomand Switzerland preserves a character definitely apart from theeastern, and this barrier across the Bernese valley, unpassed for athousand years, still divides the German from the Romand speakingpeasantry. To the north and west lies Gruyère, greenest of pastoralcountries, uniquely set in a ring of azure heights, where like a lostProvence, the Romand spirit has preserved its eternal youthfulness andcharm. Greatly loved by all the Swiss, its annals piously preserved byancient chroniclers, this country is German only in its eastern rockyportion; but where the castle stands and in all the wide valleys whichopen towards the setting sun, it is of purest Romand speech andcharacter. Here ruled for six hundred years a sovereign line of countswhose history, a pastoral epic, is melodious with song and legend, andglowing with all the pageantry and chivalry of the middle ages. Althoughskirted by the great Roman roads, and flanked by outpost towers, Gruyèrewas never romanized, being settled only in its outlying plains byoccasional Gallo-Roman villas, while the interior country, ringed by abarrier of almost inaccessible mountains, was left to the earlyHelvetian adventurers who had first penetrated its wild forests and itsmountain fastnesses. Here, unaffected alike by Roman domination orTeuton destruction, they had set up the altars of their Druid faith andhere preserved their ancient customs and their speech. Here also traveled the adventurous Greek merchants from old Massilia(Marseilles), leaving in their buried coins and in the Greek words ofthe Gruyère dialect the impress of their ancient visitation. A country fit for mysterious rites, for the habitation of the naturedeities of the Druid mythology, was Gruyère in those early days. Thedeep caverns, the "black" lakes, and the terrifying depths of theprecipitous defiles through which the mountain streams rushed intomarshy valleys, were frequented by wild beasts and birds, and haunted inthe imagination of the people by fairies and evil spirits holding unholycommerce for the souls of men. Here until the Teuton invasion the earlyCelts lived unmolested, when some fugitives from the once smiling citiesand the cultivated plains came to join them in the refuge of theirmountain homes. Strange to their half-savage brothers were thesesoftened and romanized Celts who had tended the olives and the vines onsunny lake sides, and who in earlier days had mingled in Dionysianrevels with Roman maidens with curled locks and painted cheeks. Strangetheir tales of the white pagan temples, and all the glories of theimperial cities left smouldering in ashes after the Teuton hordes hadworked their will. The arduous pioneer life of their predecessors andthe task of clearing and cultivating their wild asylum among themountains and the marshes was now their lot. Adopting slowly the alteredspeech of these later romanized inhabitants and converted to theChristian faith by Gallo-Roman priests, the indigenous inhabitantsfinally lost all memory of the teachings of their Druid bards and thefirm belief in reincarnation which sent the Celtic warrior laughing tohis death; but in the traditions of the peasantry, abounding with naturemyths, sorcerers still haunt their mountain caves, fairies and Maymaidens still flutter about their crystal streams. [Illustration: THE CHÂTEAU] One more strain, that of the heroes of the Nibelungen, the blondBurgundian giants who had forced the Romans to share with them a portionof their conquered territories, was destined to add height and virileforce to the Celto-Roman people of this country. Strangely differingfrom their ancient enemies the merciless Teutons, these mightyBurgundians, most human of all the vandal hords, in an epic of tragicgrandeur rivaling the classic tales of mythology, for a centurymaintained an autonomous and mighty kingdom. Gentle as gigantic, indomitable in war, invading but not destroying, their greatest monarch, Gondebaud, who could exterminate his rival brothers, and enact abeneficient code of laws which forms the basis of the Gallicjurisprudence, was their protagonist and prototype. Beside his figure, looming in the mists of history, is Clothilde, his niece, theproselyting Christian queen, who fled in her ox cart from Geneva to thearms of Clovis the Merovingian, first king of France. Enthroned atLyons, Gondebaud issued the laws which regulated the establishment ofhis people in their new domains, which spread over what was later thegreat French Duchy of Burgundy, the whole extent of occidentalSwitzerland and Savoy. "Like brothers, " it is related by the Latinchroniclers, they mingled with the resident inhabitants, dividing landsand serfs by lot, marrying their daughters, and quickly adopting theirlanguage and their Christian faith. Thus the whole of Romand Switzerland was deeply impregnated with theBurgundian influence, assimilating its vigorous race type and ruled byits laws. Although the country later passed under the universaldomination of Charlemagne, the character of the people was littleaffected by the distant rule of the great monarch, and when theCarlovingian Empire fell apart and Rodolph I, of the second Burgundianline, crowned himself king in the monastery of St. Maurice, his subjectswere of the same race and customs as those of his predecessors. Differing in blood from the early Burgundian rulers, these Rodolphiankings, allied to the Carlovingian emperors and long governors of loweror Swiss Burgundy, ruled pacifically and under the beloved Rodolph IIand his still better loved Queen Berthe, and their son Conrad, resistedthe Saracen invasion and preserved for a hundred and fifty years theautonomy of their kingdom. Nobles with their serfs and freemen alreadydivided the land, their prerogatives and vassalage long sinceestablished by the laws of Gondebaud. The Oberland, or Pays-d'en-Haut, Hoch Gau, or D'Ogo, in the German tongue, a country no longer wild butrich in fertile valleys and wooded mountain sides, was given to aBurgundian lord, under the title of King's Forester or Grand Gruyer;Count he was or Comes D'Ogo, first lord of the country afterwards calledGruyère. Although Burgundian, the subjects of Count Turimbert were ofdifferent races. In the country of Ogo, called Haute Gruyère, they wereGerman, while in the lower northern plains, called Basse Gruyère, theywere Celtic or Celto-Roman. Between these two divisions the mountaintorrent of the Sarine rushes through a deep gorge called the Pas de laTine. For many years the Gallo-Roman peasants feared to penetrate thisterrifying barrier between the rising valleys and the frowning heights, until, according to a legend, a young adventurer broke his way throughthe primeval woods and the rocky depths of the gorge to find out-spreadbefore him the fertile upper plateaux of the Pays-d'en-Haut. "It happened, " so runs another legend, "that the Roman peasants who hadpassed the Pas de la Tine and led their herds along the course of theSarine, wished to cut their way through the thick forest, butencountered other peasants who spoke a different language. Herepeacefully they halted on the hither side of the dividing Griesbach, 'where it touched the limit of the Alamanni. '" (_In ea parte quae facitcontra Alamannos. _) CHAPTER II INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH Twenty lords of Gruyère made up the line which maintained a singularlykindly and paternal rule over the differing people of their pastoralkingdom; all of one race, and all but the three last in the directdescent from father to son. Six centuries they ruled, distinguishedfirst for their inexhaustible love of life, their knightly valor andtheir fidelity to the Catholic faith. The first Count Turimbert, withhis wife Avana, lived in the first castle belonging to the domain atCastrum in Ogo or Château d'Oex. His was the time of good Queen Berthe, who, for defence against the Saracen invasion, built a long series oftowers on height after height from Neuchatel to the borders of LakeLeman, many of which, situated in the county of Gruyère, became theproperty of its ruling family. That Turimbert was of importance amongthe secular landholders of the tenth century is attested by hisparticipation in the Plaid of St. Gervais, a tribunal famous as beingone of the earliest on record, and held by the Seigneur de la Justice ofGeneva. His exchange of lands with Bishop Boson of Lausanne is alsorecorded in the first of a series of yellow parchments, which inmonastic Latin narrate the succeeding incidents of the Gruyèresovereignty and tell the story of the long predominance of the church inSwitzerland. Seven centuries before Turimbert, in the period of theRoman domination, a cloister had been founded at St. Maurice D'Agaune, near the great Rhone gateway of the Alps, in memory of the Theban legionwho had preferred death to the abjuration of their Christian faith. Here, three centuries later, the converted Burgundian king, Sigismund, took refuge after the murder of his son, enlarging it into a vastmonastery where five hundred monks, singing in relays from dawn to dawnin never ceasing psalmodies, implored heaven for pardon of his crime. Inthe seventh century came the missionary monks from Ireland, St. Columbanand his successor, St. Gall, who built his hermitage on the site of thegreat mediæval centre of arts and learning which still bears his name. At the same time, St. Donat, son of the governor of lower Burgundy, anddisciple of Columban, mounted the archiepiscopal throne at Besançon. Inhis honor the earliest church of the county of Gruyère was erected nearthe castle of Count Turimbert in the Pays-d'en-Haut. Under the influenceof these powerful religious institutions, the country was cultivated andthe people instructed, but under Rodolph III the second Burgundiankingdom rapidly approached its dissolution. Weakly subservient to thechurch, and dispossessing himself of his revenues to such an extent thathe was forced to beg a small pittance for his daily necessities from hischurchly despoilers, it was said of him that "_Onc ne fut roi comme ceroi_. " Ceding the whole of the province of Vaud, including part of thepossessions of Count Turimbert, to the bishop of Lausanne, the alreadypractically dispossessed monarch named the Emperor Henry II of Germany, as heir to his throne. And although Henry the II was unable to enterinto this inheritance during the lifetime of Rodolph, the latter'snephew, the Emperor Conrad the Salique, assumed control of the kingdomwhich then was incorporated into the German Empire. Not withoutdevastating wars and desperate opposition on the part of the heirs ofthe Rodolphian line was the country preserved to the German sovereign, and under his distant rule it became a prey to continuous dissensionsbetween the bishops and the feudal lords. "Oh, King, " appealed the prelates, "rise and hasten to oursuccour--Burgundia calls thee. These countries lately added to thydominions are troubled by the absence of their lord. Thy people cry tothee, as the source of peace, desiring to refresh their sad eyes withthe sight of their King. " The answer to this appeal was the establishment of the Rectorate ofBurgundy under the Count Rudolph of Rheinfelden and his successors, theDukes of Zearingen, who founded in the borders of ancient Gruyère thetwo cities of Berne and Fribourg. Between these centres of the risingpower of the bourgeoisie arose mutual dissensions and quarrels with thealready hostile lords and bishops, and the country was more than everthe scene of wars innumerable. Still holding the supreme power, the Church alone could bring the peacefor which the country longed. At Romont, near the borders of Gruyère, Hughes, Bishop of Lausanne, invoking a great assembly of prelates, proclaimed the _Trêve de Dieu_ before a throng of people carrying palmbranches and crying "_Pax, Pax Domini_. " Thus in this corner of theworld was adopted the law originating in Acquitaine, which prevailedover all Europe and which alone controlled in those strange times theviolence and the pillage which was the permitted privilege of the robberbishops and the robber lords. Gruyère and its rulers reflected theinfluence of the all-powerful hierarchy, and Turimbert and hissuccessors took their part in the great religious society extendingover all Europe, where the conservation of faith was of supremeimportance, and when men belonged more to the church than to theircountry. The possession of the great monasteries surpassed those of the largestlandholders, and Rome with its mighty prelates for the second timebecame the capital of the world. When Hildebrand the monk, mounting thepapal throne as Gregory VII, excommunicated the German Emperor, HenryIV, he placed the imperial crown upon the head of none other thanRudolph of Rheinfelden, the governor of Transjurane Burgundy and of theprovince of Gruyère. After Henry, forced to submission, had scaled theicy heights of the Alps to prostrate himself before Hildebrand atCanossa, after Rudolph had been killed in battle by Henry's supporterGodfrey de Bouillon, Hildebrand's pupil and successor Urban II, journeying to Clermont in Cisjurane Burgundy, summoned all Europe intorrents of fiery eloquence to rise and deliver the Holy Land from thepower of the Saracens. Unmarked in the churchly parchments which alonerecord the history of these times, were the successors of Turimbert; butin the period of the first Crusade, Guillaume I, of the succeeding andunbroken line of Gruyère counts, appears as the head of a numerous andpowerful family preëminent for their loyalty to the church. Among theshining names of chivalry immortalized in the annals of the Holy warsare those of Guillaume, of his son Ulric, chanoine of the Church atLausanne, and of his nephews Hughes and Turin. Not with Peter the Hermit, the hallucinated dwarf whose sobbingeloquence had led an innumerable motley host of unnamed peasants tocertain disaster in the deserts of the East, went the hundred Gruyèriansoldiers led by Guillaume, but with the knights and priests of RomandSwitzerland, the Burgundian French and Lombard nobles who swelled thefabled hosts of Godfrey de Bouillon. With gifts of lands to churches andto priories and with the blessing of the lord bishop of their county theGruyère pilgrims, eager to battle for the holy cause, obeyed with ardorthe cry of _Dieu le veut, Diex le volt_, and leaving their country, faced without faltering, dangers and distant lands and carried theirscarlet banner with its silver crane, bravely among the bravest. "The young bergères of Gruyère, " so runs the chronicle, "barred thegates of the city to prevent their departure, by force the gates wereburst, and the poor maidens wept as they listened to thestandard-bearers cry, a hundred times repeated, "_En Avant la Grue, S'agit d'aller, reviendra qui pourra. _" How wide is the ocean we mustcross, " they asked as they galloped down the valleys, "as wide as thelake we must pass when we go to pray to our Lady of Lausanne?" Tasso, the poet of the Crusades, so well appreciated the valor of theSwiss soldiers that he chose their leader for the honor of first scalingthe walls of Jerusalem. "Over the moat, on a sudden filled to the brim With a thousand thrown faggots, and with rolled trees stout and slim, Before all he ventured. On helmet and buckler poured floods of sulphurous fire. Yet scatheless he passed through the furnace of flame, And with powerful hand throwing the ladder high over the wall, mounted with pride. " Again when the Christians were in want of wood for the catapults androlling towers with which to scale and batter down resisting walls, Tasso leads this same undaunted servant of de Bouillon into the forestenchanted by the Satanic ally of the Musselmans. "Like all soldiers I must challenge fate-- Surprises, fears and phantoms know I not. Floods and roaring monsters, the terrors Of the common herd affright not me! The last realm of hell I would invade, Descending fearless, sword in hand. " Such, according to Tasso, was the spirit of the Swiss Crusaders. Did thebanner of Gruyère float with those of Tancred, of Robert of Normandy andof all the flower of the French noblesse over the walls of Jerusalemdelivered? No record tells of it. Many of the hundred "beaux Gruèriens"doubtless perished on the holy soil. A fraction only of the host whichin multitudes like the stars and desert sands invaded the east, assembled for the assault upon the Holy City. Famine, thirst andpestilence decimated the great armies upon which fell the united cohortsof the oriental powers. Blasphemy and prostitution, the refuge ofdespair, alternated in the camp of the Crusaders with fanatic visions ofvisiting archangels, of armed and shining knights descending the slopesof heaven in their defence. From such a phantasmagoria, surpassing inthe historical records all the poetic imaginations of its famouschroniclers, only a few returned to tell the tale. Among these fortunatepilgrims was Guillaume of Gruyère, who, once more safe among his homemountains, ended his life with lavish gifts to the holy church of whichhe was so preëminent a servant. The priory of Rougemont founded by himupon his return, the church of St. Nicholas in the same region, near theborders of the Griesbach, still exist in testimony of his devotion andpreserve the memory of his name and reign. Exemplifying by his deeds thedominating religious exaltation of his time he was allied by marriagewith a family equally illustrious for its loyalty to the church. Hiswife, Agathe de Glane, was sister to Pierre and Philippe de Glane, protectors and tutors of the young count of Upper Burgundy, who throughhis mother's marriage to the duke of Zearingen shared with the latterthe rule of the united provinces under the sovereignty of the GermanEmpire. Son of a father done traitorously to death by his own vassals, the young count of Burgundy was himself as basely murdered while atprayer in the church of Payerne by these same vassals, and with him thebrothers-in-law of Guillaume de Gruyère, Pierre and Philippe de Glane. Guillaume de Glane, son and nephew of the murdered protectors of theiryoung suzerain, profoundly moved by the tragedy which had befallen hishouse, determined to renounce the world and commanding that not onestone should remain of his great castle of Glane dedicated these samestones to the enlargement of the monastery of Hauterive, where, takingthe garb of a monk, he finished the remainder of his days. Such was theorigin of the power of the great Cistercian monastery which still standsat the junction of the rivers Glane and Sarine in the county ofFribourg. Not content with this unequalled act of piety andrenunciation, the insatiable Bishop of Lausanne exacted the cession ofevery château and every rood of land belonging to the family of deGlane, part of which--through the marriage of Agnes to Count RodolpheI, and of Juliane to Guillaume of the cadet branch of Gruyère--hadextended the domain of the latter house. Undeterred by the greed of thebishop, Rodolphe piously preserved the traditions of his predecessorsRaimond and Guillaume II, who had founded the monasteries of Humilimontand Hautcret, by continued gifts to the latter as well as to Hauterive. Yet the robber bishop implacably demanded another act of renunciationfrom Count Rodolphe, one of serious significance to the future of hishouse, by which he authorized the transference of the market of thecounty from Gruyère to the neighboring city of Bulle which belonged tothe bishop. The city of Bulle thereafter became the centre of exchangeof the county, while Gruyère, although now the _chef-lieu_ of thereigning counts, was permanently deprived of all possibility of progressor enlargement. Thus the city of Bulle, busy and flourishing even tothis day, has kept its place in the growing commercial importance of thecounty, while Gruyère is still the little feudal city of the middleages, precious historically as it is picturesque, but crystalized in apermanent immobility. Forty marks, scarcely more than the worth of themess of pottage for which Esau sold his heritage, was the price acceptedby Count Rodolphe for the commercial existence of Gruyère. [Illustration: GATEWAY] Rodolphe's far more virile successors, Pierre I and Rodolphe II andIII, attempted with the support of the people to defy the power of thebishop, and in disregard of the act of their predecessor, to keep up themarché at Gruyère. But the power which could excommunicate an emperordid not hesitate to launch the same formidable curse upon the princes ofGruyère and they were forced to yield. The foundation of the church ofSt. Théodule at Gruyère and of the rich and venerated convent of thePart Dieu by his daughter-in-law, Guillemette de Grandson (widow of hiseldest son Pierre) attested the unabated devotion of the Gruyère houseto the Catholic religion. CHAPTER III SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY In the middle of the thirteenth century the counts of Gruyère--who hadso long been oppressed by the grasping prelates of the Church--camewithin the orbit of another power, that of the rising house of Savoy. Fortifying their influence by alliances with the kingdoms of Europe, extending its domains over occidental Switzerland and far into Italy, the counts of Savoy were already in a position to dispute the power ofthe bishops, when Count Pierre took his place at the head of his house. Although he had occupied for two years the bishopric of Lausanne, whichhad so long been inimical to the counts of Gruyère, the spiritualoverlordship of the country of Vaud did not satisfy the genius or theambition of the ablest personage in a family which numbered fivereigning queens, and who, himself was marquis in Italy, earl ofRichmond in England and uncle and adviser to King Henry III of Englandand of his brother the Emperor Richard. Although he lived by preferencein England where his lightest word could control the tumults of thepopulace, the wisdom of Count Pierre's choice of delegates greatlyextended his Savoyard domain. "Proud, firm and terrible as a lion, " "thelittle Charlemagne" as his contemporaries called him, was wise also andaffable with his subjects. Brilliant in intellect, master of happy andcourteous speech, he fascinated where he controlled. The princely air ofpride and power, seen in the portraits of Pierre de Savoy, the blazingdark eyes and mobile mouth of his Gallo-Roman ancestors, present thetruly majestic semblance of the founder of a dynasty and the eminentlysympathetic overlord of the Gallo-Roman counts of Gruyère. Such was thegreat ruler and law-giver who easily supplanting his niece as head ofthe house of Savoy, reduced to a loyal vassalage all the nobles of RomanSwitzerland. Not without opposition from the bishops and feudal lordsnor without jealousy from the German emperor did Count Pierre arrive ata height where he saw only heaven above and his mountainous domain!"From Italy through the Valais, " so a chronicler of his house relates, "at the rumor that a rival German governor of Vaud was besieging hiscastle of Chillon, he reached the heights above Lake Leman. There hesurveyed the banners of the noble army, and the luxurious tents inwhich they took their ease before his castle. Hiding his soldiers atVilleneuve, alone and unobserved he rowed to Chillon, where from thegreat tower he watched the young nobles as they danced and reveled injeweled velvets and shining armor, with the maidens of the lake-side. Then at a given signal, he emerged to lead his waiting army to thecomplete rout of the surprised besiegers. " Among these holiday warriors was Rodolphe III of Gruyère, who with hiscomrades--eighty-four barons, seigneurs, chevaliers, ecuyers and noblesof the country--were taken to the castle of Chillon where, according tothe chronical: "_Comté Pierre ne les traita pas comme prisonniers maisles festoya honorablement. Moult fut grande la despoilie et moult grandele butin. _" After a year's imprisonment Count Rodolphe was ransomed by his people, and first among all the Romand knights swore fealty to his new overlordat the château of Yverdun. Growing in favor with Pierre de Savoy and hissuccessors, the counts of Gruyère became their trusted courtiers andcounselors, and through many vicissitudes and many wars merited theencomium of Switzerland's first historian, that the "Age of chivalryproduced no braver soldiers than these counts, their suzerain had nomore devoted vassals. " The submission of Rodolphe of Gruyère having been confirmed in formaltreaty, his grandson and successor Count Pierre the Third, loyallysupported during a long and brilliant reign the banners of his overlordagainst the rising power of Rudolph of Hapsburg. When Berne, allied withSavoy, was besieged by the Hapsburg army, Count Pierre generouslysupplied money to the beleaguered city and in the final battle when thecity fell, it was a Jean de Gruyère who snatched the torn andbloodstained Bernese banner from the hands of the enemy. When asked thename of the hero who had saved the flag, his comrades answered "_c'estle preux de Gruyère_, " and to this day the Bernese family of Gruyèrebear the title thus bravely won by their progenitor. The role of mediator, filled with distinction by his successors, wasfirst assigned to Count Pierre III, who as avoyer of Fribourg at thattime allied with Austria, was empowered to arbitrate the differenceswhich arose between the houses of Savoy and Hapsburg. Always loyal to his suzerain, Count Pierre served under the Savoy bannerin the war with Hughes de Faucigny, dauphin of the Viennois, and onlyafter the marriage of Catherine (daughter of Amédée V of Savoy) to theredoubtable Leopold of Austria had sealed a truce between the rivalpowers which divided and devastated the country, did he consent to jointhe Austrian army in Italy under Duke Leopold himself. In the brilliant cortège which followed Duke Leopold to Italy, CountPierre, accompanied by a number of his relatives, was notable by thecommand of a hundred horsemen and a force of archers. Mounted on horses, armored like their riders and covered with emblazoned velvets, such aforce of cavalry was the strongest as well as the most imposinginstrument of warfare in this time, when the knights, willing only toconquer by personal bravery, despised all arms except their lances andtheir swords. Contested by the warring Guelphs and Ghibellines, the cityof Milan and the palace of the newly crowned German emperor himself waswith difficulty protected by the imperial guard. The soldiers of DukeLeopold, arriving without the city walls, under a hail of stones andarrows, broke through the outer barricades and burst the city gates, andthen Gruyère again, at the head of his horsemen dashed through, bringingrelease to the imprisoned emperor and victory to the Austrian arms. Not long was the alliance between the houses of Hapsburg and Savoy toendure. The rising powers of the cities, still more the prowess of themountaineers, the Waldstetten, who soon after Duke Leopold's Italiancampaign had vanquished him and his shining warriors at the famousbattle of Morgarten, resisted with growing success the Savoyard and theHapsburg sovereignty, and divided in ever changing alliances thefermenting elements of the tottering feudal society. The horn of theAlps, sounding the tocsin over the rocky defile of the SwissThermopylae, announced the approaching end of the feudal rule of themiddle ages and the dawn of liberty in Switzerland. Although at first a willing ally of Pierre de Savoy, the city of Berne, greatly enlarging its possessions by conquests and alliances and growingrapidly in independence and republican enlightenment, warred incessantlywith the nobles of the surrounding country and with particular virulenceattacked the counts of Gruyère. So serious a menace did the proud citybecome to all the knights of Romand Switzerland, that they were drivento attempt its humiliation. All the great lords of Helvetia west andeast joined the brave alliance. The banners of Hapsburg and Savoy wereunited in the determined onslaught upon the powerful city, and a largeforce from Fribourg, eager to aid in bringing her rival low, swelled theforces of the nobles in a glittering army of three thousand knights, whowith their attendant vassals gayly and confidently practised feats ofarms before the little fortified city of Laupen while awaiting thearrival of the Bernois. Among them, Count Pierre de Gruyère, refusing an enormous indemnity forlosses at the hands of the Bernois and as ever faithful to his order andto Savoy, took his place with other nobles of his house. Warriors eachone by training and tradition, not yet had any fear of defeat chilledtheir ardor or their courage, nor had they learned the wisdom ofconcealing their threatened attack upon the growing republic. Thecitizens of Berne were given ample time to send a messenger to thevictorious mountaineers of Morgarten, and this was their reply: "Notlike the birds are we who fly from a storm-stricken tree. In troublebest is friendship known. Tell the Bernois we are friendly and will sendthem aid. " The June sun was setting over the plateau when the nobles desisting fromtheir sports drew up their cavalry, supported by a chosen band ofinfantry from Fribourg. Retreating before the advance of the latter, theWaldstetten, in the forefront of the Bernese army, sought, as was theircustom, an advantageous position for attack. From the heights above thecity, with their terrifying war cries, and with the same furiousonslaught which had overwhelmed Duke Leopold's glorious horsemen atMorgarten, they fell upon the nobles in a bloody melée in which horses, men and valets perished in a hopeless confusion. Three Gruyère knightswere left lifeless on the battlefield and eighty-four others, who thuspaid the price of their temerity in thinking to stem the alreadyformidable confederation of citizens and free people in Switzerland. Undeterred by this defeat and continually menaced by the incursions ofthe Bernois, Count Pierre de Gruyère successfully held them in check, and, no less wise as ruler than he was valorous in war, enlarged thepower and extent of his domain by political and matrimonial allianceswith the great Romand families of Blonay, Grandson and Oron, as well aswith the warlike La Tour Chatillons of the Valais, and with the powerfulWissenbourgs and the semi-royal Hapsburg-Kibourgs of easternSwitzerland. Leaving to his nephews, "Perrod" and "Jeannod, " theseigneuries of Vanel and Montsalvens which they had inherited from theirfather, he shared with them the rule of the people. The "three of Gruyère" whose acts are recorded in the dry and unpoeticparchments of the time, were united in a paternal and pacific rule underwhich people and country reached a legendary height of arcadianprosperity. First to deserve the name so cherished in the legends of Gruyère of"pastoral king, " Count Pierre III saw his herds increase and valleys andmountain sides blossom into fabulous fertility. His was the golden ageof the herdsmen the "Armaillis, " of whom it was related in symboliclegend that, "their cows were so gigantic and milk so abundant that itoverflowed the borders of the ponds into which they poured it. " By boatthey skimmed the cream in these vast basins, and one day a "_beauberger_, " busy with the skimming, was upset in his skiff by a suddensquall and drowned. The young lads and maidens sought long and vainlyfor his body and wore mourning for his tragic fate. Discovered onlyseveral days later, when amid floods of boiling cream they whipped thebutter into a mound high as a tower, his body was buried in a greatcavern in the golden butter, filled full by the bees with honey rayswide as a city's gates. "Where, " asks a living Romand writer, "is theeclogue of Virgil or Theocritus to surpass the beauty of this legend?" Dying full of years and honors, Count Pierre left the care of hisbeloved people and his happy country to his nephews the cherished Perrodand Jeannod, who even in the churchly parchments are known by thenicknames affectionately given them by their uncle. Together they ruled, although Pierre IV, the eldest and ablest, bore the title of Lord ofGruyère. Always by the side of his uncle in all his wars and on thebloody plain of Laupen, Perrod had already won his title of Chevalier, and did not lack occasion to further prove his courage in a new war withthe Bernois who in one of their many incursions had advanced far amongthe upper Gruyère mountains, near the twin châteaux of Laubeck andMannenburg, lately acquired by the Gruyère house. Accustomed to successand confident of an easy victory, the Bernois scattered about thevalleys, leaving the flag to their leader with a few men-at-arms. Butthe Gruyèriens, wary and prepared, were already massed upon the heightsover the defile of Laubeck-Stalden, whence they fell suddenly upon theBanneret of Berne, who, thinking only to save the flag, cast it farbehind him among his few followers, and meeting alone the attack of theenemy, died faithful to his duty and his honor. Bitterly lamenting, theBernois retreated with their flag, while Count Perrod and his victoriousband, returning to the castle, celebrated famously with songs and jests, in a brave company of knights and ladies, their triumph over theirredoubtable enemies. Not so gayly did the banners of Gruyère returnhomeward in the next contest with Berne, for, now allied with Fribourgand determined to avenge their late defeat, they advanced in greatnumbers and with fire and sword ravaged the country of the count ofGruyère and attacked the châteaux of his allies, the lords of Everdesand Corbières. Already the château of Everdes was burning, the Ogobridge was lost, and while Corbières was hotly besieged by the men ofFribourg, the Bernois advancing within sight of the castle of Gruyère toattack the outpost Tour de Trême, encountered at the Pré de Chénes asmall band of Gruyèriens. Here, until the arrival of the main force ofCount Pierre, two heroes, justly celebrated and sung in all the annalsof Gruyère, alone behind a barrier of corpses withstood the onslaught ofthe Bernois. Two men of Villars sous Mont were they: Ulric Bras le Fer, and the brave Clarimboz. So strong the arms with which they wielded thegreat halberds of the time, that the handles, clotted with the blood oftheir foes were glued to their clenched fists, so that it was necessaryto bathe them long in warm water to detach them. Although the Bernoisburnt the Tour de Trême and captured sixty of the defendants, CountPierre and his soldiers forced them to retire, and the castle and cityof Gruyère were saved. Strong men were these knights and vassals ofGruyère to withstand and gayly to forget the bloody assaults of theirdetermined foes, for in the intervals of war alarms they passed aholiday life of jest and song. Within the circle of their starlitheights, they nightly watched the brandon lights on peak and hilltop;and while the sentinels in every tower scanned the wide country for asign of the approaching foe, within they made merry in the banquetinghall. In the long summer afternoons, tourneys in the jousting court, ortribunals held in the same green enclosure alternated with generousfeasts out-spread on the castle terrace for the enjoyment of the people. Often Count Pierre would mount his horse and ride among the mountainswhere he administered justice before the doors of the chalets, adoptingthe orphans who were brought to him, giving dots to the daughters of thepoor, and sometimes taking part in the wrestling contests of theherdsmen--their brother in sport--their father in misfortune. During allthe years of the fourteenth century the feudal society of Switzerland, although so fiercely attacked by the rising bourgeoisie power, blazedlike the leaves in autumn in a passing October glory with the snows ofwinter seemingly still afar. At Chambéry, the court of Amédée VII ofSavoy, called Le Comté Vert from the emerald color of the velvet inwhich he and his courtiers were clad, the brother rulers of Gruyère tookpart in all the fêtes and tourneys. Present when the great order of theAnnonciata was instituted, and again, when the emperor of Germany wasreceived at banquets served by knights on horseback, they sat at tableswhere fountains of wine sprinkled their rubies over gilded viands invessels of wrought gold. But at Gruyère the young brother rulers held a little court which forintimate gayety and charm surpassed all others. Gallic in its love ofbeauty, loving life and all its loveliest expressions, it was a court ofdance and song--the heart of hearts of Gruyère, itself the centre andthe very definition of Romand Switzerland. Often intermarried, theBurgundian counts preserved in its perfection the blond beauty of theirancient race, surpassing in athletic skill the strongest of theirsubjects, and with the same bonhomie with which their conqueringancestors had mingled with their vassals, they exemplified in theirkindly rule the Burgundian device: "_Tout par l'amour, rien par laforce. _" The people doubly Celt in origin, added to the Celtic ardorthe quick imagination, the gift of playing lightly with life, and a highand passionate idealism expressing itself in an unequaled and valorousdevotion to their rulers, together with an arcadian union of simplicityand finesse, the individual mark of their sunny pastoral life. The château on its green hill was a fit centre of the closely mingledlife of the rulers and their people. Rebuilt on its ancient rudefoundations under the reign of Pierre de Savoy, it possessed the greattowers and sentinel tourelles, the moat, drawbridge, courtyards, terraceand arsenal of the time, but in its enchanting situation, its intimate, inviting charm, it quite uniquely expressed the sense and love of beautyof its unknown artist architect. Within were the high hooded fireplaces of the time, blazoned with thesilver crane on scarlet of the Gruyère arms, armorial windows and wallsbrilliantly painted with lozenges or squares of blue and scarlet. In thegreat Hall of the Chevaliers, Count Pierre and his brother Jeannod heldtheir revels among a familiar company of their cousins of Blonay, Oron, Montsalvens and Vanel, _preux chevaliers_ all, assembled at Gruyèreafter long days at the chase. There, also, were the daughters of thehouse, brave in jewels and brocades, and answering to the names ofAgnelette and Margot, Luquette and Elinode, who took their part in thefair company dancing and singing through the long summer nights. OrChalamala, last and most famous of the Gruyère jesters, would presideover a _Conseil de folie_, with his jingling bells and nodding peacockplumes, recounting with jest and rhyme the legends of the ancient heroesof Gruyère. Only Count Perrod was forbidden to wear his spurs, havingone day torn the pied stockings of the fool. "Shall I marry the greatlady of La Tour Chatillon?" he had asked his merry counselor. "If I werelord of Gruyère, " was the reply, "I would not give up my fair mistressfor that ill-featured dame. " Devoted Catholics as were the Gruyère people, their religion was asource of comfort and protection, but even more a reason for rejoicingand for the innumerable fêtes in honor of their favorite saints, forwhich the little city was almost continually decorated. Passion playsand mysteries culminated at Easter in a wild carnival week in whichpriests and people sang and danced together in masks and parti-colorfrom dawn to starlight. In the fête called _Jeu des Rois_, a parade incostume was led by a crowned king in scarlet robes, accompanied by hisfool, by his knights and his minstrels. Music and dancing and feats ofarms were followed by a religious ceremony, and at night-fall after theplay, the king's banquet, where white-bearded magi offered him gifts ofgold and silver goblets, of frankincense and myrrh, finished the revel. [Illustration: LACE-MAKERS] Or again on the first Sunday in May all would assemble for the sportcalled _Château d'Amour_ of ancient Celtic origin. In the midst of agreen field or in the square before the _Hotel de Ville_, a woodenfortress was erected, surrounded by a little moat and with high towersand a donjon. Maidens and more maidens, smiling and flower-crowned andwith white arms outstretched, poured down a rain of arrows and woodenlances from the battlements, or oftener pelted their lovers theassailants with showers of roses. Then at a given signal, in a suddenescalade, the besiegers broke over the walls, each to receive a kiss anda rose as prize of victory. Then besiegers and besieged together burnedthe fortress, and the day ended with bacchic libations and with dances. Meeting by moonlight nights to sing their love songs and rhymed legendsin the city square, the Gruyère people better loved their dances, thelong Celtic Korols (or Coraules), when, singing in chorus in wildwinding farandoles, they went dancing over vales and hills, day in andday out until human strength could bear no more. Such was the famousdance quaintly recounted in ancient French by a Gruyère chronicler. "It happened one day that the Count de Gruyère returning to his castle, found thereby a great merry-making of young lads and maidens dancing inKoraule. The same Count, greatly loving of such sport, forthwith tookthe hand of the loveliest of the maidens and joined the company. Whereupon, no one tiring, they proceeded, dancing always, through thehard-by village of Enney up to Château D'Oex in the Pays-d'en-Haut, andwonderful was it to see the people in all the villages they passedjoining in that joyous band. Seven hundred were they when they finished, having danced continuously for three days over the mountain leaguesbetween Gruyère and Château D'Oex, and great was the fame of CountPerrod and his dancing in this _Grande Coquille_. " Such was life in this idyllic country, the beloved _Grévire_ of themelodious Romand speech, where "the houses are high with roofs leaningfar towards the ground, where the plums are so ripe they fall with thebreeze, where there are oats and tressed wheat, cows black and white andrich cheese, black goats, too, and horned oxen--and beautiful maids whowould wed. " Nourished on rich milk smelling of the aromatic grasses of theirpastures, white and pink as the apples of their orchards; light-footedand vigorous from their mountain life, their dancing and their athleticsports, the Gruyère people developed a beauty celebrated even in thegrave pages of the historians. From their hearts warm with the sun, their fancy fed by the beauty of their ravishing country, issued songswitty and sad, and always melodious with their soft Italian vocables, aliterature in Romand patois. Thus the golden age of chivalry, rhymingharmoniously with the golden age of the herdsmen, in the blue circle ofthe Gruyère heights, grew to its noon day. Then, suddenly as a tempest gathering across the sun pours quickdestruction over a parterre of flowers, black horror swallowed upGruyère. The plague called the Black Death, born in the Levant andrushing like a destroying flood with terrifying rapidity over theborders of Switzerland, penetrated even into the mountain-encircledcountry of Count Pierre. The devils and evil spirits of the caverns andthe forests seemed now in the imagination of the Celtic people to be thesinister authors of this mysterious and devastating curse. The youthsand maidens, no longer dancing to rhymed choruses of love and joy, swungwildly in dances of death among the abandoned corpses. Sprung from the carnival dances, where the masked Death forcing theterrified maidens to his embrace led them to the cemeteries to celebratethe memory of the dead, the priest countenanced these masks as religiousrites and taught the superstitious people that their gifts would easethe souls of those sent suddenly unshrived to hell. With solemn phraseand syncopated notes, the _danse macabre_ wound through the darkenedstreet around the shadowed crucifix up to the chapel door, where inhideous masks, and dancing still, the hallucinated people, cast theirgold before the altar. "And as the coins, tin, tin, fell in the basins, so, ha, ha, hi, hi! the poor souls laugh in purgatory. " So, taught bythe priests and prelates ignorant as themselves, the sadly alteredGruyère people incessantly danced and prayed, sometimes givingthemselves to the strange lascivious customs to which the whole countrywas abandoned, and sometimes joining in the cruel persecution of theJews, accused of poisoning their fountains and their streams. Nothingwas lacking in the reign of terror which overwhelmed Gruyère in the lastyears of Count Pierre's reign. Fires and earthquakes succeeded to theplague, and in the midst of their terrors their implacable enemies, theBernois, attacked them. "O! Misfortune, and three times misfortune, beware how you touch Berne!"the refrain of an old song too often forgotten by Count Pierre, was oncemore exemplified in the revenge which the Bernois wreaked upon theGruyère châteaux of Laubeck and Mannenburg, for the thefts of theirherds. On St. Etienne's day, in the dark December of 1349, the avenging Bernoistook the field, and a thousand strong assembled before the walls of thetwin fortresses. Reeling and shouting to the sound of fifes and drums, in a gross satire of the dance of the fanatic flagellants, they whippedthemselves into a furious rage and then attacked the walls. Bothdonjons, although strongly fortified, fell and were destroyed. Unappeased, the Bernois were advancing towards Gruyère when theircupidity was tempted by offers of rich indemnities by Count Pierre'smessengers, with whom, together with a crowd of prisoners, they returnedto Berne. Rage and despair as black as this the darkest winter of hisreign, possessed Count Pierre, but milder counsels spoken by the gentlevoices of his countess and the two sainted Dames de Vaud, Isabelle deSavoie-Chalons and her daughter prevailed. Like a trio of angels singingover the deathlike darkness and terror of the time, they brought peacewhere there was no peace; and with the august assistance of the reigningprince of Savoy and the bishop of Lausanne established another Trêve deDieu between the warring cities of Berne and Fribourg, and truce betweenBerne and the country of Gruyère. At last, where fire and sword, wherethe power of rival cities and proud knights allied, had failed, the loveand high influence of these noble ladies of the middle age mostwonderfully succeeded. Memorable for its beneficent and permanenteffects, the treaty was unique for its high and unselfish spirit ofconciliation, and the final words of exhortation which stilled thewaters tossed by two centuries of storm have the sacred accent ofheavenly inspiration. "The parties in this present treaty shall in all sincerity forget allbitterness, all offence and all resentment. Secret hate shall give placeto the old love, which, God helping, shall endure forever. " Although by this pact Count Pierre's private wars were ended, the oldwarrior, unaffrighted by the anathema of excommunication, launched byPope Clement VI against the foes of the archbishop of Sion, joined thebarons who invaded the Valais at the instance of his father-in-law thelord of La Tour Chatillon. But this was his last war and during theremaining twenty years of his reign he and his people lived together, happily free at last from danger of invasion or attack. Dying at eighty, Count Pierre ended a reign, shared peacefully with his uncle andbrother, of over sixty years. Strong and tenacious of character, hospitable and courageous as all his acts declare, he was the exemplarof all the traits which have united to express the typical Gruyèreprince, and under him his pastoral domain blossomed into its climax ofidyllic prosperity. Loyal knight and brilliant comrade of his suzerain, compassionate and kindly master, by his high unflagging gayety, hisfrank and affectionate dealings with his adoring subjects, he was thevery soul and leader of the astonishing _épopée_ of revel and of songwhich has made his reign celebrated in the history of Gruyère. His brother-ruler Jeannod, as the years rolled by, became water to hiswine, as gravely sad as Pierre was gay. Three wives preceded him to thegrave, all childless, and after a fourth barren marriage he bestowed thegreater part of his inheritance upon the church, and when a few yearsafter his brother's death he was carried sumptuously in gold and silkensheets to his prepared resting place in the cathedral of Lausanne, amultitude of sacred lamps burning perpetually in shrines and monasteriesover all the land celebrated his pious memory and his disappointments. CHAPTER IV FOREIGN WARS Rodolphe IV, eldest son of Count Pierre, although sole inheritor of thetitle and authority of count, had two younger brothers Pierre and Jean, who perpetuated the strongly contrasted traits of the elder Pierre andJean. But in the second generation the rôles were changed. Pierre wasthe religious brother, and became prior of Rougemont, while Jean, evenmore eager for martial glory than his father, went far from home to jointhe English armies of Edward III and the Black Prince in their wars withCharles V of France. Count Rodolphe, surpassing his predecessors in thebrilliancy of his alliances, married two grand-daughters of Savoy, andthrough his second countess, Marguerite de Grandson, was related to thedistinguished family whose soldiers following Pierre de Savoy toEngland there established a noble line of Grandisson. These Grandissonswere intimately related with the kings of England through the SavoyardQueen Eleanor. The glorious progress of the English armies, the fame ofCrécy, the capture of the King of France resounding through all Europe, inflamed with chivalric ardor, young Othon de Grandson, and in hiscompany Jean de Gruyère, to set out in the spring of 1372 for England. Warmly received at Windsor, they were present at the fête of St. George, and assigned a place in the naval forces of Lord Pembroke, sailingshortly after with his fleet for the western shores of France. Bravelyand confidently enough the English set out for the scene of theirearlier and easy conquests, but the Black Prince, stricken with mortaldisease, no longer led their armies; Spain under Pedro the Cruel wasallied with the already disaffected English possessions in Brittany, andwhen Pembroke sailed up to the harbor of La Rochelle he was attacked byan overwhelmingly superior Spanish fleet. Recounted immortally in the glowing pages of Froissart, is the story ofPembroke's hopeless battle with the Spanish fleet. Confiding in theskill and valor of his soldiers and bestowing the title of chevalier onevery man among them in the last hour before the combat, he gave thesignal to advance. It was dawn and the tide flowed full, when, with afavoring wind, the forty great Spanish vessels, bearing the floatingpennons of Castille, advanced to the sound of fife and drum in battleline upon the English fleet. Arrived at close quarters, and grapplingPembroke's ships with chains and iron hooks, they poured down from theirtall towers a rain of stones and lead upon the lower and exposed decksof the English, who with swords and spears sustained the fierce attackall day until darkness fell. With the twenty-two newly-made knights whovaliantly defended Pembroke's ship was Jean de Gruyère, and when atlast, grappled by four great galleons, they were boarded and everyresisting arm subdued, he was taken prisoner with Pembroke. On anothervessel, fighting as bravely, Othon de Grandson was also taken prisonerand with Jean de Gruyère was transported in captivity to Spain. Dearlypaying for their ambition and their new titles, they were furnished inrecompense for their valor with lands in Spain by a Burgundian noble, and by industrious commercial enterprise paying their ransom and theirdebts, after two years regained their liberty and their homes. Rodolphe IV, reigning count of Gruyère, displayed in his long career noquality worthy of his generous and high spirited father, no trace of theconciliatory wisdom or devoted piety of his mother. Calculating in hismarriages, he was unjust and even dishonest with his people, whom heforced to pay twice over for their exemptions and their privileges. Still dishonestly withholding the signed and purchased acknowledgementof their new privileges from his subjects, he was surprised alone atnight in the castle by a doughty peasant, who forced the paper from hisunwilling hands and threw it out of the window to a waiting confederate. Left in charge of the Savoyard troops who had driven the invadingViscounti from the Valais, and entrusted with the guardianship of thechâteaux and prisoners won by the Savoyard arms, he exacted and obtainedlarge sums for his services, although those services consisted in acomplete surprise and defeat at the hands of the sturdy inhabitants ofthe Valais, wherein, except for the heroic defence of the very subjectshe had so oppressed, he would himself have perished. From the benefitsof the peace which was ultimately established in the Valais, these sameloyal subjects were excluded. How greatly Count Rodolphe was lacking in the noble and humanitarianqualities which had so generally characterized the counts of Gruyère, was shown in his dealings with his young relative Othon de Grandson. Thecomrade of his brother, Jean de Gruyère, in his French campaigns and inhis long captivity in Spain, Othon de Grandson was later doubly relatedto Count Rodolphe, as brother-in-law of his first wife Marguerited'Alamandi, and as nephew of his second countess, Marguerite deGrandson. The tragic hero of an unjust drama of prosecution whichdivided in opposing camps the nobles of Romand Switzerland, Othon deGrandson was falsely accused of complicity in the poisoning of CountAmédée VII of Savoy, and although declared innocent by a royal Frenchtribunal, was again implacably accused by his rival in love, CountEstavayer, on his return to his estates. Calling God to witness that hisaccuser lied, he consented to defend and prove his innocence in a trialof arms, where, in the presence of his suzerain and of his council andknights assembled, he fell mortally wounded at the feet of his opponent. No effort was made by Count Rodolphe to defend his relative, whileRodolphe le Jeune was not only an unprotesting witness of his undeservedand tragic fate, but the purchaser with his father's assistance of theconfiscated Grandson estates. Again, although selling the newly acquiredchâteaux of Oron and Palézieux to increase their revenues, the twoRodolphes, in total disregard of the rights of the new owners, attemptedto retake them by force of arms, and except for the immediateintervention of the count of Savoy, would have plunged the newlypacified country into a general war. An enchanting legend regarding the first wife of Count Rodolpheilluminates the dismal story of his inglorious reign. Marguerited'Alamandi has been confused in the tradition with Marguerite deGrandson, the second wife of Rodolphe. It is Marguerite d'Alamandi, andnot the other Marguerite who is the heroine of the tale which has beenelaborated into a moving little drama by a poet pastor of the eighteenthcentury, and which beautifully preserves the customs and the atmosphereof that distant time. Countess Marguerite of Gruyère, so runs the story, was so sadlyafflicted that she had borne no heir, that she had no longer any joy inher fair castle, no comfort with her beloved lord. Vainly journeying todistant shrines, as vainly invoking the aid of sorcerers and magicians, she went one day, clad as one of her poor subjects, to pray in thechapel at the foot of the Gruyère hill. There, as the November day wasclosing, poor Jean the cripple, well known through the country, camealso to tell his beads. Very simple and kindly was poor Jean, withalways the same blessing for those who gave him food or mocked him withcruel jeers. Perceiving in the shadow a poor woman sadly weeping, hegave her all his day's begging, a piece of black bread with a morsel ofcoarse cheese, repeating his usual blessing, "May God and our Lady grantthee all thy noble heart desires. " That evening, again clad in herjewels and brocades, the Countess Marguerite, at the close of a feastlaid for her husband's comrades after a day at the chase, offered eachknight a bit of this bread and cheese, with a moving story of poor Jeanand a prayer that all should wish what her heart so long and vainly haddesired. Nine months later, so concludes the tale, a fair son and heirwas born to the happy dame. On the walls of the Hall of the Chevaliers, among the painted legends of the house, poor Jean and CountessMarguerite live in pictured memory; and a room next the great kitchen ofthe château, called by the cripple's name, has been pointed out for manygenerations as the spot where, fed on the fat of the land, he enjoyedthe bounty of the countess during the remainder of his days. Rodolphe le Jeune, the long awaited heir of this story, did not live toinherit the rule of the domain whose fame his father had so sadlystained. Brilliantly educated at the court of Savoy, and later thecouncilor of the countess regent, he emulated his uncle's heroic exampleand joined the English armies under Buckingham in France, there winningpraise and the offer of the chevalier's accolade. But he failed tofulfil the promise of his youth and died prematurely, leaving his youngson Antoine, the last hope of the family, to succeed to his grandfather. Count Antoine's overlord, the youthful count of Savoy, confided theeducation of his vassal and protégé to a venerable prelate of Lausanne;but heeding nothing of his pious instructions the young ruler wasted hisrevenues in extravagant hospitality, lived gaily with his mistresses, and celebrated the weddings of his two sisters with famous feasting andgenerous marriage gifts. Unlike his predecessors, who shared the rule ofGruyère with brothers or sons, he reigned alone, and gave himself whollyto the ambition of maintaining the pleasure-loving reputation of hishouse. More than ever under Count Antoine was Gruyère a court of love. The numerous and beautiful children of his mistresses filled the castlewith their youthful gayety and charm, and his two splendid sons, François and Jean, proudly acknowledged by their father and legitimizedwith the sanction of the pope, took their place among the young noblesof the country as heirs of the Gruyère possessions. Again the gayCoraules of flower-crowned shepherds and maids wound over the valleysand hills. Again minstrels and chroniclers recorded and sang the lovelytraditions of their pastoral life. "Gruyère, sweet country, fresh and verdant Gruyère Did thy children imagine how happy they were? Did thy shepherds know they lived an idyll? Had they read Theocrite, had they heard of Virgil? No, no! as in gardens the lilac and rose Grow in innocent beauty, their days drew to a close. " So in a fond ecstasy of recollection, sings a Romand poet, and thus inthe famous lines of Uhland is related the Coraule of Count Antoine. _The Count of Gruyère_ Before his high manor, the Count of Gruyère, One morning in Maytime looked over the land. Rocky peaks, rose and gold, with the dawning were fair, In the valleys night still held command. "Oh! Mountains! you call to your pastures so green, Where the shepherds and maids wander free, And while often, unmoved, your smiles I have seen, Ah! to-day 'tis with you I would be. " Then afloat on the breeze, there came to his ear, Sweet pipes faintly blowing--still distant the sounds---- As across the deep valley, each with his dear, Came the shepherds, dancing their rounds. And now on the green sward they danced and they sang, In their holiday gowns, a pretty parterre, With oft sounding echoes the castle walls rang, To the joy of the Count of Gruyère. Then slim as a lily, a beauteous maid, Took the Count by the hand to join the gay throng. "And now you're our captive, sweet master, " she said, "And our leader in dancing and song. " Then, the Count at the head, away they all went, A-singing and dancing, through forest and dell. O'er valleys and hillsides, with force all unspent, Till the sun set and starry night fell. The first day fled fast, and the second dawned fair, The third was declining, when over the hills Quick lightning flashed whitely--the Count was not there! "Has he vanished?" they asked of the rills. The black storm clouds have burst, the streams are like blood By the red lightning's glare, and dark night is rent, Oh, look! where our lost one fights hard with the flood, Until a branch saves him, pale and spent. "The mountains which drew me with smiles to their heights, With thunders have kept me, their lover, at bay. Their streams have engulfed me, not these the delights I dreamed of, dancing the hours away. "Farewell, ye green Alps! youths and maidens so gay, Farewell! happy days when a shepherd was I, Stern fates I have questioned have answered me nay, So I leave ye, with smiles and a sigh. "My poor heart's still burning, the dance tempts me yet, So ask me no longer, my lily, my belle! For you, love and frolic, but I must forget, Take me back, then, my frowning castel. " No attacks from feudal lords or from rival cities threatened Gruyèreduring the reign of Count Antoine, which came to its end in undisturbedtranquility. The kindly and _complaisant_ father, brother and loveressayed as he grew in years to correct some of the follies of his youth, and according to the opinion of Gruyère's principal historian marriedthe mother of the children he had already legitimized. A pious andlamenting widower, he instituted many masses and anniversaries for therepose of the soul of his wife, the Countess Jeanne de Noyer of blessedmemory; and erecting a chapel to his patron St. Antoine in the parochialchurch of Gruyère caused to be painted therein the kneeling portraits ofhimself and his countess, in perpetual testimony of his devotion to therites of matrimony and religion. [Illustration: FORTIFIED HOUSES--NORTH WALL] CHAPTER V THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (Count François I) The inheritance of the estates Count Antoine had so diminished by hisimprovident generosity was bitterly contested by the husbands of his twosisters, but the duke of Savoy did not hesitate to recognize the rightsof his legitimized descendants, and François I of Gruyère and hisbrother Jean of Montsalvens entered without difficulty into theenjoyment of their inheritances. Count François, flower of the race ofpastoral kings, presents one more historical example of the brilliantintellect, of the abounding vitality and extraordinary beauty with whichnature--unheeding law--seems unwisely to sanction the overwhelmingpreference and inclination of unmarried lovers. A celebrated chroniclerof Zurich who had seen the famous personage whom the historians describeas "the handsomest noble in Romand Switzerland, " records in Latin howgreatly he exceeded in his noble proportions and mighty stature themajority of mankind, and spoke also of his armor, fit for giants, whichwas long preserved in the château of Gruyère. Becoming in his youth the favorite companion and support of Amédeé IX, during his early years in Italy, he was entrusted by that gentle ruler, when he acceded to the ducal throne of Savoy, with every importantoffice in his domain. Governor and Bailli of Vaud, "conseiller" and"chambellan" of the court, he was chatelain of Moudon and Faucigny, military governor of the great fortress of Montbéliard; and finally, asmaréchal of Savoy, became the general-in-chief of all his forces. WhenAmédeé, resigning his flute playing and his many charities, returned toItaly and abandoned his throne to the Duchess Yolande--worthy sister ofLouis the XI of France--François de Gruyère was still the principalsupport of the throne. The virtual governor by reason of his judicialand military administration of the whole duchy of Savoy, Count Françoisof Gruyère did not neglect to continue and to strengthen the amicablerelations of his house with Fribourg. Winning prizes in its tournaments, taking part in all its fêtes and often dwelling in the imposing châteauwhich he had erected within its gates, he became a personage of theutmost importance and influence with the city authorities, andpersuaded them to renounce their alliance with the dukes of Austria andswear allegiance to Savoy. In the triumphal entry which he made therein, on the occasion of the formal signing of its vassalage to its newsuzerain, his splendid appearance as he advanced mounted and in armor, followed by the bishop of Lausanne, the court of justice and all theauthorities of Fribourg, is recorded in the annals of the city. Equallyrespected at Berne, he indefatigably labored with the proud andstiffnecked council of its citizens until they also consented to form analliance with Savoy. But although frequently residing at Fribourg or atthe ducal court of Chambéry, and absent for the most part in theadministration of his multifarious offices, he did not forget Gruyère, where he wisely and economically regulated the finances, increased andimproved the herds, and effectually restrained the people in theirhabitual depredations upon the possessions of Berne and Fribourg. But Switzerland, the battlefield of so many warring powers, was now tobecome the scene of a European drama, of rival principalities andpotentates avid of world control--a family tragedy of the related rulersof France, Germany, Burgundy and Savoy. By his delegated rule of thelatter country, François de Gruyère, although playing his part only inthe prologue, took his place beside the great figures of the EmperorFerdinand of Germany, Louis XI of France, the Duchess Yolande and theirmagnificent cousin Charles the Bold of Burgundy. Sent by his father, Charles VII of France, at the head of the redoubtable Armagnacs, to helpthe German emperor to subdue the Confederated Cantons, the dauphin LouisXI had such a taste of the quality of the Swiss soldier as he was neverafterwards to forget, when, at the battle of St. Jacques, fighting asheroes never fought before, snatching the arrows from their bleedingwounds, battling to the last, fourteen hundred Swiss despatched eightthousand French and Austrians with eleven hundred of their horses. Suchsoldiers Louis XI preferred as allies rather than antagonists and, whenhe succeeded to the throne made haste to attach them to his cause. Hewas wiser in this than his sister Yolande, who assured of the preciousalliance with the leading cities of the Swiss Confederates, lately soably negotiated by the count of Gruyère, paid less attention topreserving their friendship, than to her ambitious designs upon the vastterritories and untold wealth of Burgundy. These territories she dreamedof annexing to Savoy through a marriage with Marie, daughter and heiressof Duke Charles and her young son Philibert, and for this reason tooksides with the duke against France and her treacherous brother. TakingHannibal and Alexander as his models, the duke of Burgundy, alreadyruler of the Flemish provinces and the richest potentate in Europe, dreamed of a kingdom which should extend from the Atlantic to theMediterranean and as far as the borders of the Rhine. With the allianceof the German emperor, he saw the possibility of a still furtherextension of his power, and for this reason promised his daughter to theheir of the empire, Maximilian. With the passing of her hopes for thiscoveted marriage alliance, the Duchess Yolande was content to maintainher alliance with Duke Charles, and to preserve her regency under hisprotection and support, little dreaming of the swift and terribledestruction which awaited him in the shadow of the Alps. That destruction stealthily prepared by all the arts at the command ofthe most malevolently skilful monarch who ever wore a crown, was not atthe outset so lightly defied by the great duke of Burgundy, who had nomind to alienate the country of Romand Switzerland, which had originallyformed a part of his own domain, and was still allied to its dividedhalf by a common language and centuries of amicable commercialrelations. Supported by the Duchess Yolande, he was still more closelyallied with his brother-in-law, the able Jacques de Savoy, who was countof Romont and ruler of the whole Savoyard country of Vaud. An earlycomrade of Duke Charles, he had been appointed maréchal of his Flemishprovinces, and by this office maintained the close relations betweenRomand Switzerland and Burgundy. But Louis devilishly and implacablyplanning his rival cousin's ruin, sowed dissension between theconfederated cities and their lately acknowledged suzerain the duchessof Savoy. Determined to attach to himself the indomitable Swisssoldiers, he bought with pensions and unlimited promises the alliance ofBerne and Fribourg and the associated cantons of German Switzerland. Divided between French and German-speaking inhabitants, the Frenchcitizens in the two cities who were loyal to Savoy and sympathetic withtheir Burgundian cousins, were outwitted by Louis' agent, his formerpage Nicholas de Diesbach. In October of the year 1474, the adherents ofLouis in Berne had so prevailed that war was formally declared againstBurgundy by the confederates, and in November before the fortress ofHéricourt, Louis' brother-in-law the Archduke Sigismund of Austria, withthe assistance of the Bernois, inflicted the first bloody defeat uponDuke Charles. Messengers were then sent by Charles to Berne to treat forpeace but with no result, and two months later the Bernois, who hadalready seized a Savoy fortress in the Jura, took possession of threechâteaux in the Pays de Vaud belonging to Count Romont. Justly indignantat this invasion of the Savoy territory, the duchess sent the Count deGruyère to Berne to remonstrate against the infraction of the stillexisting alliance with her house. A strange reception was accorded him. No penitence for the unwarranted attack upon the Savoy fortresses, butan insolent ultimatum, declaring instant war unless she immediatelyrecalled Count Romont from his command in the Flemish provinces, andherself declared war upon Duke Charles. No more Lombard soldiers of DukeCharles were to be permitted to pass through the Bernese territories, but Swiss soldiers unarmed or armed should pass at their discretion. Equally unsuccessful with Fribourg, the duchess, wondering "whence camethe evil wind which had blown upon the two cities, " heeded no one of thecommands which had been issued by Berne, and, as double-faced though farless skilful than her brother, still continued to negotiate with the twocities, still permitted the Lombard troops to pass. The result was thatthe Bernois addressed themselves directly to the count of Gruyère, whomthey had already forbidden to take sides with Burgundy, holding himpersonally responsible for the passage of the Lombards and threateninginstant invasion of his estates. Count François now addressed hisfriends of Fribourg, asserting that he had forbidden the passage of thetroops and so far influenced the city authorities that they sent theiradvocate to their allies of Berne, asking to be released from bearingarms against Duke Charles. But this was the utmost that he could accomplish for his hesitating anduntrustworthy mistress, and with the refusal of Berne to releaseFribourg from assisting them in their war against Duke Charles, hepermitted his subjects to form new treaties with the cities by which, though refusing to bear arms against Savoy, they were bound to join inthe war against Burgundy. That the Duchess Yolande could not fail to suffer in the defeat of herallies was no less plain to her than to her general, and threatened withreprisals, seeing the storm gather about his head, Count François, sickof heart and of body, retired to his château. There, fortunate in thathe was spared the necessity of openly bearing arms against the duchy hehad so long and ably governed, he died in the very moment of theoutbreak of the impending conflict. The most illustrious of the sovereigns who presided over the destiniesof Gruyère, François I has left an imperishable memory and bore a uniquerole in the history of the fifteenth century in Switzerland. By apersonal force and ability surpassing any of the nobles of his time, hejustified the confidence of the suzerains he successively served. Everything possible was accomplished under his administration for theduchy of Savoy, torn between such powers as Burgundy and France. Glovedin velvet, the hand of François was of iron, but a rare judgment anddiscretion characterized him, so that whether as supreme judge, presiding as his suzerain's delegate over the tribunals of Fribourg, oras general holding the Savoy fortresses and the Savoy armies inreadiness for defence, he supported the reign of law and justice in theland, and so long as he lived succeeded in keeping the Savoy rulers ontheir ducal throne. Never had Gruyère enjoyed such a rule, and greatlydid it redound to his credit that his little pastoral domain waspreserved in growing prosperity and independence between the threateningand ambitious republics of Berne and Fribourg. Even in the days of hisbrilliant youth when he brought his Italian bride, the noble Bonne daCosta, from among the ladies of the Piemontaise court of Savoy, to sharewith him the pleasures of his charming little domain, he showed howstrong a defender he could be of its liberties and possessions. For whenthreatened by the Fribourgeois he sent them such a message, declaringthat war if they wished it should be waged with "sword and fire, " assufficed effectually to calm the turbulent disturbers of the peace, andinduce the city authorities to the pacific relations which thereafterwere established. Again when the succession of a prince of Savoy wascontested for the bishopric of Lausanne, he superbly cut short thedeliberations of the council of prelates, saying, "Why bargain thus?Whether they wish it or not, he shall be bishop. " The Savoy possessions suffered no curtailment during his administration, and no flower fell from the Gruyère crown while he so splendidly woreit, but many liberties harmonious with the growing republicanism ofSwitzerland were voluntarily granted to his beloved subjects, whoinconsolably lamented their loss when the noble features and toweringform of their incomparable ruler were shut forever from mortal sight inthe church under the Gruyère hill. CHAPTER VI THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (Count Louis) Among the many benefits with which Count François' ability and sagacityhad enriched his inherited estates were the acquisition of theseigneuries of Grandcour and Aigremont, and the repurchase of thebeautiful castles of Oron and Aubonne. The two latter residences wereassigned during his life to his two sons Louis and François, Louis beingearly established at Aubonne, and François becoming seigneur of Oron. Louis, worthy successor of his father, passed at Aubonne by the shoresof lake Leman a youth of peace and happiness. Writing from thence to hisyoung wife Claude de Seyssel, a daughter of an illustrious knight ofSavoy, Louis showed in the following intimate little letter, thecharming nature he had inherited from his parents. Ma Mie, I recommend myself to thee. I have thy letter sent by Gachet, and I think that my wish to see thee is as great as thine to see me, but I must still delay a little. Ma Mie, I recommend to thee the little one, my horse and all the household. Recommend me to our good Aunt Aigremont, to her sister and to M. Aigremont and the nurse, to the maid and Perrisont. Ma Mie, please God, to give thee a good and long life and all thy heart desires. Written at Aubonne, the morrow of St. Catherine's day. Louis de Gruyère, All thine. A Ma Mie. The joy of this happy household, of kind relatives and devoted servants, was soon broken by the early death of the child, their first-born son, Georges, who was taken from his parents six years before their accessionto the rule and responsibilities of their estates. The birth of twoother children, François and a daughter Helène, had consoled them, andit was a truly "_joyeuse entrée_" which they made on a beautiful JulySunday in the year 1475 to the square before the Gruyère church, formally to take possession of their domain according to the ancientcustom of their predecessors. The herald crying out the summons of thecount, his subjects, who had collected from towns and villages andvalleys, raised their hands and swore fidelity. Count Louis, with hishand on the holy book, promised to protect them; and thestandard-bearer, waving the silver crane, declared that their flagshould lead them against all their foes. Three months only were to passbefore this banner took the field, for the storm clouds approaching fromthe neighboring kingdoms of Burgundy and France were thundering now overSwitzerland, and the bitter rivalries of Duke Charles and his cousin ofFrance had now reached the moment of collision on Helvetian soil. Fortified by a renewal of his alliance with the German emperor, the dukeof Burgundy, eager to chastise the Confederates who had dared to defyhis imperial ally and who had humiliated him at Héricourt, prepared toinvade Switzerland. But Louis, the _diabolus ex machina_, who hadsecretly fostered the discord between Burgundy and the Confederates, hastily signed a nine-years' truce with Charles, and remarking with hisusual sardonic smile that his "fair cousin did not know his foes, " lefthim and his sister to the tender mercies of the enemies he had arrayedagainst them. A clause in the treaty which preserved Louis from allparticipation in the impending conflict, stipulated that Savoy and theConfederates should be included in the peace, provided that theycommitted no single act of depredation or hostility for a period ofthree months. Secretly subsidized by Louis with ample funds toprosecute the war, the Confederates immediately sought a pretext forthe attack upon the possessions of Savoy, and found one ready to theirhand in the confiscation by Count Romont of the celebrated contrabandload of German sheepskins carried illegally through his country by someBernese carters. Calling to their aid the inhabitants of the Valais, whohad long resented the suzerainty of Savoy, they prepared to marchagainst the duchess and Count Romont. The frightened duchess now againattempted to negotiate with this strong combination, when the news ofDuke Charles' advance with a splendid army dissipated her fears, and sheopenly declared for Burgundy and sent her forces to join those ofCharles. Another cause involving the count of Gruyère precipitated theinternal quarrels of Savoy and the Confederates. Count Romont, incitedby the jealousy of the family of de Vergy, which (through their alliancewith the sisters of Count Antoine de Gruyère, had disputed theinheritance of his legitimized successor François) pillaged and capturedthe Gruyère châteaux of Oron, Aubonne and Palézieux, and Duke Charlessent a force of Burgundian and Savoyard soldiers to invade Gruyèreitself. Calling his friends the Fribourgeois to his side, Count Louismet and conquered this army, capturing a banner which is still preservedin the church at Lessoc. No further hesitation was thereafter possiblefor the ruler of Gruyère, who was thus compelled to take sides againstthe duchess if he wished to preserve his country from dismemberment andthe cruel and ferocious devastation which the Confederates were nowinflicting upon the beautiful country of Romand Switzerland, andparticularly upon the country of Vaud, the apanage of Duke Charles'maréchal, Count Romont. For, fully supplied with funds by Louis, nothingcould arrest the German inhabitants of Fribourg and Berne, who, in athree-weeks' campaign of murder, violence and pillage, utterlydevastated and conquered the above provinces, burning the châteaux, decapitating their defenders and soiling the reputation of the Swisssoldier by inexcusable acts of cupidity and ferocity. Never was so venaland brutal a war waged at the will of a foreign and detestablytraitorous king, and the coming of the great Duke Charles was awaited byall the inhabitants of the Romand country as a welcome deliverance fromthe hated Bernois. Postponing his Italian campaign, Duke Charles, deafto his advisers and eager to chastise the cruel depredations of the"insolent cowherds" he so despised, started from Nancy with hismagnificent army in midwinter of the year 1476 as for a brief pleasureexcursion, and laid siege to Grandson which had been captured by theBernois. After a stubborn resistance the Bernois garrison, promisedpardon by a venal German volunteer of the Burgundian cause, surrenderedonly to suffer the same cruel fate which they had dealt to thedefenders of the Savoy fortresses. But now flocking to the aid of theirconfederates came the unconquerable victors of the Austrian dukes, theWaldstetten; and the horn of the Alps with the same fatal clarion ledthe mountaineers from the heights above Grandson to their old victoryover the nobles, and to the surprising defeat of such an army of wealthand kingly power as the world had not seen since Xerxes. Massed in hisjeweled tents and golden chapel were the treasures of the richestpotentate in all Europe; harnesses and habiliments of gold and velvet, tapestries and gemmed crowns and orders, ropes of pearls, rubies anddiamonds (which still glorify the tiaras of the pope and emperors)--allthese were sold for a few sous or were trampled in the snow by theignorant shepherds and cowherds of the Alps. After such an unimaginabletragedy, Duke Charles, like a beaten child, weeping with rage and sickwith despair, at last roused himself to send with the consent of theDuchess Yolande a deputation to treat with the Confederates; and thisdeputation was sent to Count Louis of Gruyère. Announcing thisextraordinary event to the authorities at Fribourg, he wrote: "It istrue that I received last Saturday a letter from M. De Viry, with asauf-conduit, to take me to Vauruz, to talk of peace. When asked whatauthority I had to act for you, Gentlemen of Fribourg, I replied that Ihad none whatsoever. I said, moreover, that I could not engage toapproach you without the written consent of M. De Bourgogne, but that Iwould, with this guarantee, work body and soul in the matter. Thesegentlemen assured me on their honor that they would not have spokenwithout his consent, but I answered that trusting them in all else, Iwould have nothing further to do with their propositions without thiswriting from the Duke. Whereupon, it was agreed that M. De Viry, who wasto dine with Madame (the Duchess Yolande) to-day at Lausanne, would sendme news by this Tuesday or Wednesday. " [Illustration: THE CITY ON THE HILL] Repeating in this communication the report that Duke Charles hadrecovered from his illness and would be within a mile of Fribourg in afew days, Count Louis added that a trusted agent of his own had beensent to the duke's camp and had reported that he was still ill, that hisartillery was in poor condition and that some of his supporters haddeserted him. Ill as he was, Duke Charles, hastily collecting a new armyto avenge his defeat and too proud to confide to paper his real desirefor peace, refused the condition of Count Louis, sending a haughty replythat "he was not accustomed to make advances to his foes, that he was, nevertheless, disposed particularly to make terms with Fribourg but notwith its confederates. " Thus the pride which was the origin of all hiswoes caused Duke Charles to reject the mediator who would have workedwith "soul and body" for his welfare, and thus vanished the fairprospect of peace between Burgundy and the Confederates. Although thelatter had been victorious at Grandson, the country captured in theirthree-weeks' campaign had in a still shorter time been recaptured by theSavoyards, and a strong party in Romand Switzerland was opposed to them. At this juncture, the German emperor, twice foresworn, deserted theirally the Archduke Sigismond, and the Bernois, alarmed for the safety oftheir city, hastily invoked the promised aid of Louis XI. No answer camefrom their perfidious ally and the Swiss Confederates, alone at last, were left to defend their own country and their freedom. Emperor andking alike were absent, all their machinations finished, and although onthe memorable day of Morat, Savoy was pitted against its own cities, andthe Confederates against their Burgundian cousins in as unnatural andunnecessary a conflict as ever divided ancient friends, the Swisssoldiers then immortally testified to their patriotism and their valor. Three months had passed since Grandson and Duke Charles had succeeded inassembling a new army--less in numbers than that which had there beenannihilated--a motley force of Savoyards and discontented Italianmercenaries ready to desert his cause, but containing three thousandEnglish under Somerset who were eager to fight with the enemy of France. The duke, still ill and half insane with fury and the determination toavenge his defeat, was in no condition easily to accomplish thatrevenge. He was determined to let no further time elapse, therefore heassembled these forces and established his fortified camp within a mileof the little city of Morat, held by a Bernese garrison. Magnificentlyfighting before the great breaches in the defending walls, the Berneseheld the city during ten long days, giving time for their confederatesto assemble behind the hills which concealed their approach from theBurgundian camp. Six thousand more men of Berne were joined by theWaldstetten mountaineers, the German troops of Archduke Sigismund, onehundred horse and six hundred foot from Gruyère, "all men of greatstature, athletic force and indomitable courage;" and, lastly, by themen of Zurich, who had marched day and night to swell this army of24, 000 which were to meet a like number of Burgundians. On the 22nd dayof June, the anniversary of the death of the ten thousand martyrs whohad fallen at Laupen, their descendants prepared with masses and withprayers to avenge their death. It was a day of pelting rain, and whenthe Burgundians, advancing to the attack, had waited six hours under thedownpour for any sign of an approaching foe, they retired to their campwith soaked powder and loosened bow-strings at the very moment when theclouds dispersed and the sudden sunshine illuminated the serried pikesof the Swiss as they advanced in unexpected numbers over the crest ofthe hills. Duke Charles had retired to his tent and was surprised attable by a messenger announcing the imminent attack of the enemy. He wascompelled to don his armor on the battlefield itself where he tookcommand of his confused ill-arranged forces, fighting beside the Englishsoldiers under Somerset in the thick of the battle as it raged about thegreen hedge and little moat which divided the two armies. Against themwas Duke René, battling with the Swiss to regain his lost Lorraine, andLouis of Gruyère with his brave soldiers. Many times the Swisshalberdiers were driven back under the fire of the Burgundian artillery, as many times the Burgundian cavalry charged with brilliant success, anda hope of regaining his lost honor began to smile upon Duke Charles, when a terrible clamor arose from the very midst of his camp. Again thehorn of the Alps, the loud appalling roar of the "Bull of Uri, " the "Cowof Unterwalden, " which had overwhelmed in panic terror the Austrianknights at Sempach and Morgarten and which the Burgundians themselveshad heard at Grandson, fell upon their ears; and quickly following thecrash of their own guns which had been captured and turned uponthemselves by their own adversaries, the mountaineers of theWaldstetten. At the hedge, in the very centre of the conflict, DukeCharles and Somerset still desperately encouraged their men to ahopeless resistance. Here in the midst of the carnage was Duke René, leaping from his fallen horse and fighting by the side of Count Louisunder the scarlet banner of Gruyère; here fell Somerset and here fell atlast the great banner of Burgundy in the arms of its dying defender. Soon the Burgundians were completely surrounded by the rear-guard of theSwiss, and by the Morat garrison, and Duke Charles breaking his waythrough his beaten and disorganized army with a force of three thousandcavalry, succeeded in making his escape. Red was the water of the littlelake where, in a mad retreat, the Burgundians were drowned in thousands;red was the battlefield where, after all hope was gone, a still greaternumber were massacred in cold blood by the implacable Swiss. "Cruel asMorat" was the saying which, passing into common speech, commemoratedfor centuries this unforgotten conflict. Ill-prepared to meet the united and well-nigh unconquerable Swiss as wasDuke Charles, the irremediable defeat which he suffered in thiscelebrated battle might have been averted. But like a predestined victimof the gods, driven mad by pride, and surrounded by rumors of thedesertion of his supporters, he had most unhappily chosen the onlySavoyard prince who was unalterably faithful to him, for his distrust, and had forbidden Count Romont and his strong army of nine thousand mento take part in the conflict. Thus the able general and the fresh, unbroken force which might have saved the day watched from a neighboringhill the the annihilation of the Burgundian army. Retiring at last fromhis post of observation when he saw the great banner fall, Count Romontoffered to cover the retreat of the duke, who, still refusing his aidalthough deserted by all but a dozen of his guard, fled madly acrosscountry, taking refuge at last at Morges. The fleeing remnant of hisarmy was pursued by the Lorraine and Gruyère cavalry to Avenches, CountRomont and his Savoyards alone escaping the general destruction; whileCount Louis of Gruyère, still riding triumphantly at the head of hishorsemen, as far as Lausanne, laid that city under contribution. Theappetite of the Bernois was by no means appeased by the great spoils ofthe Burgundian army, and in spite of the injunction of Louis the XI, whodid not intend to lose the jurisdiction of Savoy, they again took thefield, capturing Payerne, burning Surpierre and Lucens; while thechâteau of Romont, besieged by their allies of Fribourg and defendedgallantly to the last by Count Romont himself, fell also. At Lausanne, the rage and cupidity of the Bernois knew no restraint, and the city andcathedral were sacked remorselessly, thus bringing to an end an utterlyunwarranted campaign of wanton destruction. Duchess Yolande, who had hastened to the relief of Duke Charles, wasalso so suspected by her defeated ally that he caused her to be arrestedby his maître d'hôtel and some brutal Italian soldiers and cast into theBurgundian fortress of Rouvres, whence, finally convinced that herbrother was the most powerful as well as the most friendly of her foes, she appealed to him for deliverance. Brought by his agents to Franceafter three months' imprisonment, Louis summoned her to his presence atPlessis-les-Tours: "Madame la Bourguignonne, " he said with his evilsmile, "you are welcome. " "I am a good French woman, " replied hissister, "and ready to obey the will of your Majesty. " Whether, as has been recorded, Louis really loved his sister, who wasalmost as able and far more attractive than himself, he kept her instrict imprisonment until she signed a paper of perpetual fidelity tohim, and then he sent her back to Savoy and reëstablished her on herducal throne. The prince bishop of Geneva was even more eager than hissister-in-law to desert Duke Charles, and fearing that his city wouldsuffer the fate of Lausanne, offered to assist the Bernois in invadingBurgundy, there to complete the duke's destruction; whereupon theBernois at the price of an enormous indemnity consented to spare Geneva, and to cease all further conquests in the Pays de Vaud. They alsoagreed, under the repeated commands of King Louis to send their deputiesto a convention of the ambassadors of all the powers to meet atFribourg in July, 1476. A great and imposing company were theseambassadors, who from France and Austria, Savoy, and the confederatedcities and cantons of Switzerland met to treat of the long needed peace. Among them were Duke René of Lorraine and Count Louis of Gruyère, whotogether with a representative of Archduke Sigismund, were chosen asarbitrators to decide the terms of the proposed treaty. Acting forSavoy, the count of Gruyère, who only by _force majeure_ had sided withits foes, now ably and happily proved his real fidelity to itsinterests, providing for the restoration of all its possessions in thePays de Vaud. At a second conference at Annecy, when the alliancebetween the Confederates and Savoy was amicably regulated, he was alsopresent, receiving from the Genevan delegates rich donations for hisinvaluable services. For Duke Charles, also Count Louis was as beforewilling to negotiate a peace with Fribourg, but when a second deputationof the same messengers whom the duke had before despatched to him, wasagain unable to furnish the written authority he required, he was oncemore unable to mediate on the duke's behalf. But when his friend andco-arbitrator, Duke René of Lorraine, appealed for assistance to theSwiss to repel Duke Charles' final attack upon his duchy, no answer wasforthcoming from Gruyère, and among the German-Swiss confederates atwhose hands Duke Charles suffered his cruel death before the walls ofNancy, Count Louis' soldiers had no part. Small benefit was destined toaccrue, as the history of Europe unrolled through the succeeding years, from the fall of the house of Burgundy. For while Louis XI by his evilplotting had enlarged his kingdom, by obliterating the barrier ofBurgundy between France and Austria he had at the same time made way forcenturies of wars. "Here, " said the 15th Louis before the tomb of thelast duke of Burgundy, "is the cradle of all our wars. " As forSwitzerland, the system of mercenary service inaugurated by Louisdebased its honor and divided its sons, who, fighting in the opposingarmies of Europe, delayed for many years the development and theindependence of their country. For a few years only, Savoy and RomandSwitzerland enjoyed peace. Duchess Yolande, although still threatened bythe Savoy princes, was sustained upon the throne by her brother who inthis one instance was faithful to his promises. She reëstablished thecustoms of the ducal court and organized plays and festivities; andsurrounding herself with a train of musicians, with the soothing soundsof flutes and harps, attempted to forget the fierce trials and tumultsof her reign. But her spirit and her strength were broken, and, succumbing to an early death, she left her young son Philibert tosucceed to the duchy under the governorship of the Count de la Chambre, who had been chosen by King Louis. The influence of this agent, however, became too great for the designing king who intended to preserve hisjurisdiction over Savoy. He, therefore, instigated a revolt in thePiemontaise provinces of the duchy with the connivance of its ruler theSavoyard prince, Count Philippe de la Bresse. Realizing the necessity atonce to control this revolt, which favored the never slumbering desiresof the Count de la Bresse to grasp the control of Savoy, the Count de laChambre, accompanied by the Count de Gruyère and his brother, journeyedto Piémont. The Count de la Bresse, on the arrival of theserepresentatives of his nephew, caused the Count de la Chambre to bearrested in his bed and by acts of dangerous violence imperiled thelives of the Count of Gruyère and his brother. The lately renewedalliance with the powerful cities of Berne and of Fribourg now proved ofinvaluable assistance to the threatened duchy of Savoy, for at theappeal of the count de la Chambre they exacted an indemnification forthese injuries, and reduced the Count de la Bresse to submission. After the death of Duke Philibert, his brother and successor DukeCharles III renewed the useful alliance with the confederated cities, and confirmed the appointment of Count Louis de Gruyère as "conseiller"and "chambellan" of his court with the grant of additional pensions. It was not long before Count Louis had a fresh opportunity of provinghis loyalty to Savoy, an opportunity doubtless welcomed by him toobliterate the memory of his former and enforced opposition; for whenthe warlike margrave of Saluzzo revolted from his allegiance to Savoy, Count Louis practically organized an army of Bernois and Savoyards toreduce him to submission, supplying a far greater number of Gruyèriensthan was required of him, and financing the expedition with loans fromFribourg for which he was personally liable. Before the walls ofSaluzzo, it was he who led the assaults, preserved the assailants fromdestruction when the garrison made an unexpected sortie, dispersed arelieving army, and at last made a triumphant entry into the city behindthe allied banners of Berne and Gruyère. Engaged thus in the mutualsupport of Savoy, Count Louis, always working heart and soul for peaceif he could, for war if compelled, so merited the approbation of theBernois that their captain wrote that "Count Louis de Gruyère and hisbrother had conducted themselves as faithful and valorous friends oftheir allies. " Count Louis was also enthusiastic over this new allianceof the Confederates with his beloved Savoy, and declared that "he wasresolved to live and die with his allies and that with God's help theirunited strength would prevail against all foes. " Count Louis' new allies warmly appreciated the chivalry, generosity andindependence for which he was justly renowned, and in the variousdifferences which arose among the restless subjects of Gruyère, advisedthem to trust to the justice of their ruler. Preserving to his last daythe enthusiasm and the frank amenity of a singularly charming andwell-balanced character, Count Louis was wise in the management of hisestates, encouraged printing at Rougemont, and sharing the love of pompand beauty of the Savoy court, was an amateur in architecture and asenthusiastic in his religion as he was in all things else. When atornado followed by a disastrous fire destroyed a part of the city andthe château of Gruyère, he planned and partially executed an extensiveenlargement of his ancestral manor, rebuilding it in the later style ofthe fifteenth century. He also rebuilt the adjoining chapel of St. Jean, asking and receiving from the pope a grant of indulgence for thefaithful who should communicate therein on the anniversary of its secondfoundation and on the fête of its patron saint. The chapel richlyfurnished with sacred books, chalices, luminaries, and ecclesiasticalornaments still preserves with its commemorative inscription the nameand fame of Count Louis. CHAPTER VII STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESSION In view of the tender age and delicate health of his only son, CountLouis, having long enjoyed a formal alliance with Fribourg, thought itwise to make a like treaty with Berne; and foreseeing that his son'slife would probably not be a long one, he drew up a will in which heappointed his successors. In this will, he decreed that his brotherFrançois should be the next heir, after him his daughter Hélène, andnext, in default of male heirs of the direct line, the son of hisbrother, Jean de Montsalvens. The signing of the treaty with Berne wasthe last political act of his reign of twenty-three years, in which, from beginning to end, he had well seconded the constructiveadministration of his father. Inheriting Count François' brilliantqualities, with less extended powers over Savoy, his opportunities forthe display of his soldierly abilities were greater; and although warsand disasters had reduced his revenues and lessened the growth of theestates, he was able to pay a debt to Fribourg incurred by his father, and besides rebuilding the chapel and château made various importantacquisitions of property. Through his wife he was connected with one ofthe oldest and most powerful families of Savoy whose representativeswere distinguished like those of Gruyère for honorable offices at theducal court, and whose vast possessions extended over a large part ofSavoy, including the city of Aix-les-Bains. The Countess Claude, left tothe charge of a young and delicate son, who after a brilliant début inthe tournaments and festivities at Chambéry died at the early age ofseventeen, was surrounded by a multitude of annoyances and demands fromthe powerful republic of Berne, which she met with more courage thandiscretion. Although during her popular husband's reign, the people ofGruyère voluntarily assisted in the assemblage of the materials for therestoration of the château, they revolted when the countess imposedtaxes upon them for the continuation of the work, and a most unusualbitterness of feeling arose, which was only pacified by the arbitrationof the Council of Fribourg. Little understanding her people--who, asalways, could be ruled by love and not by force--she was not onlycompelled to yield in this matter, but conceded to the Bernois thefortress of Mannenburg, to keep the peace with her formidable neighbor. The countess, grief-stricken at the death of her only son, was for abrief period relieved from her onerous responsibilities by herbrother-in-law, François III, who, according to Count Louis' will, followed his nephew in the rule of Gruyère. Although succeeding at anadvanced age to the throne of his ancestors and occupying it for lessthan a year, Count François III had shared the offices of "conseiller"and "chambellan" at the court of Savoy with his brother Louis, and washeld in equal honor by the cities of Fribourg and Berne. Like Louis, hewas admitted to the diplomatic councils of the European powers, andallying himself with the prince of Orange, who, with the Orleans league, disputed the control of France with Louis XII, prevented the threatenedintervention of the Swiss Confederates. Astonishing as was the influenceof so small a principality as that of Gruyère, containing at no timemore than twenty thousand inhabitants, it was due not only to itsintermediate situation between the republics of Berne and Fribourg andthe possessions of Savoy but to the great personal importance of itsrulers--particularly of Count François and his two sons Louis andFrançois, who were not only supreme in their control of the duchy ofSavoy, but were unquestionably the greatest nobles in RomandSwitzerland. Holding its sovereignty directly from the emperor, Gruyèrehad long been an independent state, and by the grant of Wenceslas itsrulers were not only empowered to issue money but had always possessedunqualified rights of justice and administration over their subjects. Aninterregnum of discord was unfortunately destined to lessen the powerand diminish the prosperity of Gruyère, for Count François III, who hadaccompanied the prince of Orange in his unfortunate invasion of Italy, succumbed to the fatigue of the campaign, leaving the countess and herdaughter to a long and bitter struggle for the latter's rights to thesuccession. Although by the old Burgundian law, the right of female succession wasnot without precedent, the general inclination of popular sentiment wasdefinitely against it; and while Hélène by her father's will wasauthorized during her life to claim the rule of Gruyère, that willdirected that his nephew Jean of the cadet branch of the family shouldsucceed her. But the wills of Count Antoine as well as of his sonFrançois provided for the immediate and direct succession of the next inline of that cadet branch, Jean de Montsalvens, the brother of CountLouis, and not the young son designated by the latter. Fully foreseeingthe impending difficulties which would beset his wife and daughter whenthey should attempt to carry out his designs, Count Louis could neverhave imagined that the Countess Claude would assist the family which hadalready disputed the right of his own line to the throne by consentingto a marriage of her daughter with Claude de Vergy. Legitimized by thepope, sustained by Savoy, Count François had by his incomparable abilitybrought Gruyère to such a height of power and prosperity that, after thefirst attempt to dispossess him, he had been left undisturbed. CountLouis, however, had been violently attacked by Count Guillaume de Vergy, who had instigated during the Burgundian wars, the seizure of Aubonneand the invasion of Gruyère, while during the short reign of his sonFrançois raids of undisciplined marauders sent out by the same familyonly too plainly announced their hostile intentions. With the rapidlysucceeding deaths of the young François II and his uncle François III, the astute Guillaume de Vergy--a very great noble, head of his familyand maréchal of Burgundy--saw an opportunity of grasping the longcoveted succession for his son Claude by means of a marriage with Hélèneof Gruyère. But he reckoned without the well founded claims and stoutopposition of Jean de Montsalvens, between whom and his son on one sideand Hélène and her mother on the other side such a contest arose asnearly plunged Switzerland into civil war. While Berne was on Hélène'sside, Fribourg supported Jean de Montsalvens. The duke of Savoysupported the two ladies, but could find no better solution of theirdifficulties than to ask them to receive the rival pretendant as aguest in the château. When finally their friends the Bernois and theirenemies of Fribourg proposed to install Jean provisionally at Gruyèreunder the protection of an armed force, the countess thought prudent toretire, leaving the château to the management of her chatelain. Butwhile the duke of Savoy and the two cities were temporizing andhesitating between the rival claimants, the mountaineers of Gessenay, leaders of the German-Swiss people of Gruyère, and who were violentlyopposed to the marriage of Mdlle. De Gruyère with the detested family ofde Vergy, formally acknowledged Jean de Montsalvens as their ruler. Inspite of the popular opposition, Hélène's marriage was duly celebratedand her rival soon after installed himself at the château. Whereupon, the duke of Savoy indignant at the disregard of his futile propositions, sent a messenger to Berne commanding their intervention in favor ofHélène, and another to Jean himself with a mandate immediately toevacuate the château. Berne informed the men of Gessenay of itsintention to support Hélène, and commanded them to keep the peace. Theprospect of a general war seemed so imminent that the king of Francesent his ambassador, the Cardinal d'Amboise, to investigate the matter, and the maréchal of Burgundy so influenced the emperor that he issued animperial mandate recognizing Claude de Vergy as ruler of the disputedprovince. But Jean de Montsalvens, supported by his mountaineers, with an enrolled force of four thousand men, dismissed with calmpoliteness the messenger of Savoy, ignored the threats of the two citiesas well as the mandate of the emperor, and preserved so bold a frontagainst all his foes that he gained the assistance of Berne and theunanimous support of all his people, and was formally recognized ascount of Gruyère. The duke of Savoy and the two cities now proposed acouncil of all the parties concerned by which the rival claims should bedecided, but refusing at first to submit his rights to arbitration, Count Jean delayed until he was assured by popular consent of thesuccess of his cause, and then appearing before the council at Geneva, was formally confirmed in his already established succession. [Illustration: TERRACE OF THE CHÂTEAU] The Countess Claude, although supported by such friends as the maréchalof Burgundy, the duke of Savoy, the king of France, and the emperor ofGermany, had been reduced to sad straits. From her retreat at thechâteau of Aubonne, without heat, without food, she had appealed to theguard which Berne and Fribourg had established at Gruyère for a littleof her home butter and cheese to keep her from actual starvation. Thecouncil at Geneva provided for her necessities by requiring therestoration of the amount of her dot, and to her and her daughterpossession of the châteaux of Aubonne and Molière for their lives, witha purchasable reversion in favor of Count Jean. But when, dying early, Hélène, in defiance of this provision, left these properties to herhusband and his family, there were more quarrels about their possession, and again the European powers were invoked by Guillaume de Vergy, whoprocured from Louis XII of France a protest as unheeded as the mandateof the emperor, against their diversion to Count Jean. But the maréchalat last succeeded in his long considered plan of amicably uniting therival claims, for in a family council it was finally agreed that hisdaughter Marguerite should marry Count Jean's son and successor, andthat the purchase money of the two châteaux, supplied by Count Jean, should constitute her dowry. So was concluded a quarrel of more thansixty years, begun and ended by a marriage. The estates so manfully won by Count Jean were not destined to bring himunmixed satisfaction. The men of Gessenay demanded pay for their supportin the form of costly enfranchisements from contributions or taxes; therevenues of Gruyère had already been decreased by the long legalprocesses of the succession, the maintenance of the army of defence, andthe payment of Countess Claude's dot and her daughter's pension, as wellas by the heavy purchase money of the châteaux of Aubonne and Molière. While still preserving its appearance of luxury the court of Gruyère wasnow supplied and maintained by loans from Berne and Fribourg, whileCount Jean, who had prevailed against so powerful an array of foes, waslike his predecessors, despoiled by the bishop of Lausanne, who demandedthe cession of his rights over a rich part of his possessions. Thus thereign which had begun by an astonishing display of courage and firmnesswas so embarrassed by the expenditure incident to its establishment, that it ran thereafter a very inglorious course unmarked by the happyprosperity of former years. When Maximilian I prepared to proceed toItaly to be crowned emperor of the Romans, the Bernois consented toenroll Count Jean's son, his son-in-law, the seigneur of Châtelard, andClaude de Vergy, under the Gruyère banner in the army of confederateswhich was to swell the imperial forces. But with the refusal of Veniceto permit the passage of Maximilian this dream of worldly experience andadventure was necessarily abandoned. Except for the service of theCount's illegitimate son Jean, who fought with a force of Gruyèriens inthe battle of Novara, when the Swiss preserved Milan to its dukesagainst the invading army of Louis XII, no military honor accrued toGruyère during his reign. CHAPTER VIII RELIGIOUS REFORM The death of Count Jean in the beginning of the 16th century left to hisson Jean II the task of upholding the old ideals of the Gruyère houseagainst the continually growing democracy in Switzerland, as well asagainst the advance of religious reform. Endowed with all his father'sfirmness, he possessed the chivalric ardor of his predecessors and afull share of their personal charm. The long and intimate relation ofGruyère and Savoy which had been interrupted by his father's maintenanceof his rights of succession against the will of Duke Philibert II, wererenewed by Count Jean II, who soon merited the title so worthily won byhis predecessors of the "greatest noble in Romand Switzerland. " When Count Philippe de Bresse, after a lifetime spent in enviousagitations against the ruling dukes at last succeeded to the throne ofSavoy, he splendidly atoned for his ill-treatment of Count Louis deGruyère and his brother by immediately investing Count Jean II with theoffices held by his predecessors; and when he magnificently celebratedhis reconstitution of the Order of the Annonciata in the chapel ofChambéry, he invested Count Jean with the order, and at the ensuingfêtes gave him a seat at his side. The gift of this order, bestowingupon its possessor the privilege of diplomatic negotiations with thethrones of Europe, brilliantly recognized the position already held bythe counts of Gruyère of arbitrators for Savoy and Romand Switzerland inthe continual differences which arose between them and the monarchs ofFrance and Austria. Although still only a duchy, Savoy had long beenrelated by marriage with all the kingdoms of Europe. It was triplyrelated to France through the wife and the sister of Louis XI andthrough Louise de Savoie, mother of François I; it was doubly related tothe latter's great rival, the emperor Charles V, through Philibert'swife, the able Marguerite d'Autriche, and again through the emperor'ssister-in-law, the Duchess Beatrix of Portugal, wife of Philibert'ssuccessor, Charles III. Fortified and elated by this imperial alliance, Duke Charles III began his unfortunate reign with a magnificent progressthrough Piémont and Savoy, where, particularly in the Pays de Vaud, hewas cordially welcomed. At Geneva "the youth of the city were gaylydecked out in damask, velvet and cloth of gold, while a corps of themost beautiful women, superbly dressed as amazons carrying lances andshields, were led by a fair Spaniard in honor of the Duchesse. " AtVevey, bells rang, and a great procession of soldiers in parti-colorfollowed by others in pure white, with a hundred pages also in white, carrying the white cross of Savoy, came out from the gates to meet him. Presenting his suzerain with the donations of the Pays de Vaud atLausanne, Count Jean was also present with the bishops of Tarentaise, Lausanne and de Bellay at the general assembly of the Savoy estates atMorges, and at the château of Oron received the duke and his suite at asplendid banquet. The Swiss, divided by religious wars, and since the battles of Grandson, Morat and Nancy the actual arbiters of Europe, were constantly solicitedfor their alliance, and yielding to their cupidity and a widespreadspirit of adventure, continually divided their forces into mercenarybands, fighting for Italy and then France in the long series ofdisastrous Italian campaigns undertaken by Charles VIII and hissuccessors, Louis XII and François I. "_Point d'argent, point deSuisse_, " a saying only too well merited by the conduct of thesemercenary armies, originated from these French-Italian campaigns. In1499 the Swiss, fighting with France, betrayed the duke of Milan toLouis XII. At Novara, fifteen years later, they fought for the duke, andtook for themselves a large part of Piémont. At Marignan, the youngFrançois I at the head of a brilliant army of the French noblesse, furnished with all the accoutrements and artillery of modern warfare, received his baptism of fire, and Bayard won his shining immortality. There also the Swiss in a second battle of giants, although defeated, won as they had at St. Jacques the admiration of their conqueror; andjust as Louis XI had tempted them by unlimited pay to join his cause, again François I induced them by promises of permanent pensions to aperpetual alliance, and to the peace called "perpetual" which afterwardwas maintained between Switzerland and France. With the strictest historical justice this alliance, based on cupidity, was by the same ignoble motive made void of result. When the greatEmperor Charles V, allied with the pope and England, threatened theFrench possessions in Italy, the Swiss soldiers compelled the Frenchgeneral to engage the imperial forces under the most unfavorableconditions, and in the disastrous battle of the Bicoque brought aboutthe defeat of their allies, the loss of Milan and the evacuation ofItaly. Among the 16, 000 Swiss who here demonstrated the worst of theirnational qualities, was a force of 400 men from Gruyère under thecommand of Count Jean, who fought with his natural son Jean, hisbrother Jacques and his cousin of Blonay in the thick of the battle. TheFrench were hopelessly outnumbered by the combined imperial and Italianarmies and suffered a crushing defeat, and the Swiss soldiers whose payhad been stolen by the mother of François I returned to their owncountry after the battle. Confessing in truth that they were "_malpayés, mal dotés_, " Count Jean also declared that the Milanese duchywould never be recovered by the French king unless he came himself toItaly to conduct the campaign. He, therefore, returned to his estatesafter this disheartening experience where he found the long smoulderingresentment against the predatory bishop of Lausanne at the point ofexplosion. By threat of arms, he exacted payment for his despoiledrights from the bishop, and before a great assemblage of his nobles, communes and people solemnly enacted the cessation of all trade with thebishop's market at Bulle in favor of Fribourg, with whose authorities healso established new commercial relations. But Count Jean, who had greatreason to pursue these wise measures for the rehabilitation of hisalready impoverished and mortgaged estates, was soon drawn into thecontest which arose between the democratic and Savoyard parties ofGeneva, when the former, making an alliance with the republics of Berneand Fribourg, essayed to shake off the control of Savoy. The severanceof the alliance of those cities with Savoy, announced a formidablealignment of the adherents of liberty in Romand Switzerland against theruling duchy. But before this new combination had become sufficientlyconsolidated to accomplish its end, there were many efforts atpacification and compromise, and the count of Gruyère most reluctantlywas forced to accept the office of arbiter between Savoy and the freecities. Again as so often had happened before, the ruler of Gruyère was facedwith a choice between his suzerain and the republics of Switzerland. Count Jean unhesitatingly chose the former, and announced in hiscapacity of arbitrator the dissolution of the alliance of the freecities with Geneva. The result of this exceedingly courageous action washis own arraignment by Fribourg for conduct which they announced asunjustifiable and actionable. But the duke of Savoy was determined toreward Count Jean for his fidelity, and prevailed upon Berne and Soleureto renew their alliances but released Fribourg from all relations withhis house, thus delivering Count Jean from its threatened revenge. Thistreaty, regulating the relations of Savoy with the cities of Berne andSoleure, did not, however, finish the contest between the Genevandemocrats and the duke of Savoy, for the duke within a month sent anarmy within sight of the city to reduce it to submission. The feudalpowers in Switzerland were now arrayed with Savoy against the rebels ofGeneva in a league of young nobles, who assembled in force at Coppet toattack the city of Geneva. But now, although the heir of Gruyère wasamong the nobles, the people joined the army of Berne and Fribourg whichmarched to the aid of the rebellious city. Resorting to their oldpastime of devastation, the army of liberty burned château after châteauin their march to Geneva, and uniting their forces with the rebels theysummoned the duke of Savoy to account for his responsibility in thethreatened attack. In an assemblage of the ambassadors of the tenconfederated cantons, the duke of Savoy secured his continued control ofGeneva, but paid dearly for it in the hypothecation to the greedy citiesof Berne and Fribourg of the whole of the Pays de Vaud. Following thisimportant concession, the victorious cities solemnly ratified theirtreaties with Geneva, and with the establishment of religious reform, which had developed simultaneously with the struggle for politicalindependence, Geneva finally succeeded in freeing itself from the ruleof Savoy. Catholic among the Catholics, Count Jean vigorously supportedthe duke in the defence of their religion, and converted his château ofOron into a refuge for the fugitives from the Lutheran persecution. While the Bernois were breaking the sacred images and wrecking thechurches and chapels, Count Jean regularly maintained the celebrationof mass at Oron, and threatened to wreak vengeance upon the Lutheranheretics who fell into his hands. Therefore, the Bernois, withevangelical pronunciamentos, commanded him to desist, and under threatof depriving him of the château and seigneurie of Oron, forced theadoption in this Catholic stronghold of the Lutheran faith. At Gruyèreall the people were faithful, and in large numbers journeyed toFribourg, declaring they would die rather than abandon their religion. At the warning that a band of Bernese Lutherans was preparing to invadeGruyère, the Fribourgeois summoned the people to be ready at the soundof the tocsin to take arms to repel them. Epidemics succeeded to thesealarms, the restless people continually demanded new concessions, andfinally the Bernois, openly declaring war upon Savoy, rapidly conqueredthe long coveted Pays de Vaud and summoned the count of Gruyère toacknowledge their sovereignty. When Count Jean stoutly rejected thedemands of the Bernois, they immediately threatened the invasion of hisestates; but their watchful rivals of Fribourg energetically protested, and when an ambassador of Charles V arrived on the scene to lend theImperial support to the threatened principality, the Bernois consentedto recognize the independence of Gruyère but exacted and at lastobtained Count Jean's acceptance of their sovereignty over hispossessions in the Pays de Vaud. Berne's demands were no soonersatisfied than Fribourg with an army prepared to take Corbières, but atthis Count Jean's loyal subjects rose in a body, and the Fribourgeois, threatened by the people of Berne, consented to arbitrate their claimsat the very moment when the valiant Count Jean was seized with suddenillness and ended his greatly tormented existence. "Towards the end of the month of November, " a contemporary chroniclerrelates, "died at Gruyère, the noble and powerful lord Jean, Count ofthe said Gruyère, who before his death had suffered great troubles andpains, as much from the change in the overlordship and government of hiscountry as from that of religion. " The change of overlordship had been a desolating disaster to the loyalvassal of the good Duke Charles of Savoy, who, when François I despoiledhim of all but a remnant of his duchy, was sent into a poverty-strickenexile. A less firm resistance on the part of Count Jean against theencroaching powers of the confederated cities would have brought a likefate on Gruyère. In an epoch of transition, when the old feudal orderwas giving place to the increasingly triumphant democracy inSwitzerland, in a period embittered by cruel religious persecutions, involved in the wars and events which altered the political and moralaspect of Europe, he preserved to the last the integrity of his domainand its fidelity to its ancient faith. Personifying all the virtues ofthe old order of chivalry, greatly honored by his suzerain, loved andrespected at home, it cannot be denied that he was at the same time theexemplar of its faults, and of these a great and practically licensedimmorality was the chief. From the earliest period in the history ofGruyère, many of the illegitimate sons of its rulers were dedicated tothe church, and often rising to high places among its prelates shared inthe prevailing laxity and were naturally forced to condone and finallyto recognize the continuance of this state of affairs. With even lessattempt at concealment than had been observed by his ancestors in thepursuance of these irregular relations Count Jean openly installed hismistress the famous Luce d'Alberguex, at the château. An ideal Gruyèrebeauty was la Belle Luce, with the vigorous perfection of her race and asmile of such naïve sweetness and charm as still lingers in the populartradition. Count Jean gave her his fairest mountain as a gage of hisaffection and villages and rich pasture lands to her brave son, hisnamesake, who had fought by his side at the Bicoque. The gallant countwas, according to tradition, very prodigal in his favors, and a certainroad, leading to the neighboring village of Charmey where the unhappyCountess Marguerite could watch her faithless lord as he rode away onhis various adventures, is still known as the "_Charrière deCrêve-Coeur_. " Married for reasons of family policy to the daughter of the de Vergys, who resided for the most part in the château of Oron, Count Jean passedhis happiest days with la Belle Luce at Gruyère. After the death of hiscountess, and the passing of his youthful loves, he married Catherine deMonteynard, with whom he honorably passed the last decade of his life. CHAPTER IX THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF GRUYÈRE The three sons of Count Jean II not strangely reflected the conditionsof their birth and the widely differing characters of their mothers. François, only son of his second marriage, which was founded on a realpreference and esteem, possessed the kindly and charitable nature of hismother and the firm character of his distinguished Gruyère ancestors. Jean, the illegitimate son of Luce d'Alberguex, was lovable andvalorous, but lacking in firmness or dignity of character. Michel, theheir of Gruyère, and the child of Count Jean's loveless marriage withMarguerite de Vergy, while personifying in their perfection the physicalbeauty and charm of his line, was like the fair fruit of a decaying treehollow at heart, and was only too well fitted by his fantasticpretensions and his frivolous weakness of character for the tragic rôlewhich was assigned to him in the fall of his house. "_Véla, Michel li preux li beaux Fleur de tous autres damoiseaux. _" a couplet describing the romantic figure of the last count of Gruyère, is still rhymed by the people and still finds its place among theirrecords. Imposing in height as his great forerunner François de Gruyère, his features were of a beautiful regularity and nobility, his manner hadthat princely pride and simplicity which was the greatest charm ofFrançois I of France. At the French court, as in all Switzerland, he wasrenowned as "the handsomest knight of his day. " With the extinction ofthe court at Chambéry, where his predecessors had received theireducation in chivalry and where they had so faithfully and honorablyserved the dukes of Savoy, the young Michel was sent to the still morebrilliant court of France. Blazing with the beauty of the great ladieswho ruled the adored and adorable young king, the resort of painters andpoets, the rendezvous of all the noblesse of France, this court at itshighest pitch of pageantry and pride was a dazzling school for the young_damosel_ of Gruyère. Here in the white and gold dress of the "_Enfantsdu Roi_, " and next as king's _Pannétier_, he passed eight years of hisyouth, patterning his ideals only too faithfully upon the youngsovereign he served. On his return to Switzerland fresh from thisexperience in France, he joined the league of young nobles called "_dela cuiller_, " from their vow to make a sweet morsel of the rebelrepublicans of Geneva. In highwaymen raids in company with his madcousin de Beaufort of Coppet and Rolle, he defied the formidableseigneurs of Berne, and was only saved from their chastisement by theirregard for his father. After these escapades, he departed for Italy tothe court of the emperor Charles the Fifth, who at first treated himwith extraordinary confidence, but when he demanded to be appointedprince of the empire and gentleman of the bed-chamber, the emperorrefused. Passing only enough time at Gruyère to receive the vows offidelity from his subjects and to make a tour of his estates, heproceeded by way of France to carry out a mission of the emperor inFlanders. At Paris where the emperor halted on his way to deal with hisrebellious Flemish subjects, Count Michel was so pleasantly entertainedin the round of fêtes and _divertissements_ which celebrated theimperial visit, that he postponed again and again the adjustment of theimportant differences with Fribourg which had been left in abeyance atthe death of his father. His mission to Flanders was so carelesslyexecuted that he soon lost the confidence of the emperor who, openlydeclaring that "he thought little of him, " sent him away from Turin. Onhis return to Paris after another brief visit to his country CountMichel received a better welcome from François I, who invested him withthe Order of the King and with the Collar of St. Michæl. No betterexample of the personal charm of François I is to be found in historythan his influence over his Swiss allies. Assuring the ambassadors ofBerne, when they visited Paris with the hope of being released fromtheir military service, that the disastrous results of his Italiancampaigns were due only to the derangement of his finances, he promisedpersonally to lead them in his approaching invasion, beguiled them withfair words and promises, even engaging to place the crown diamonds intheir custody as gage of their pay, and professing that he was "_l'amide coeur_" of the Confederates bound them for weal or woe to hiscause. At the battle of Sésia when Bayard fell before the armies of theemperor and the traitorous Constable of France, it was the Swiss whosaved the existence of the French forces. At the disastrous defeat ofPavia, losing half of their soldiers, they fought with a desperatecourage for the lost cause of the still beloved king, who at the momentof surrender could salute the Swiss guard and say to his captor: "If allmy soldiers had fought like these, I would not be your prisoner but youwould be mine. " In the complications which arose from Berne's renewed demands for therecognition of their authority over Gruyère, Count Michel became afigure of international importance. When his domain was threatened withinvasion, he declared that he had received it from God and his fathers, and would not submit. The Fribourgeois, in the interests of the Catholicparty, were against Berne, and declared they would support him to thefull extent of their power. Six other Catholic cities also rangedthemselves with Fribourg, and war seemed so imminent that the matter wastaken before the Diet, when, with the aid of the French ambassadors anda summons from the emperor Charles V to respect the independence of hisimperial fief, Count Michel was able to retain the freedom of Gruyère, but compelled like his father to admit Berne's authority over hispossessions in the Pays de Vaud. In the support which François I gave toCount Michel, he followed not so much his predilection for a courtierwhom he had invested with the Order of St. Michel as his habitual policyof conciliating the Swiss, whose support was indispensable to him in thewar he had again declared against the emperor. In December of the year1543, Count Michel at the invitation of the king joined the French armybefore Landrécies, where with a small force of cavalry armed andequipped at his own expense he was fortunate enough to assist his oldmaster in relieving the siege of the city. But this was the only fortune which fell to the Gruyère banner duringthe various campaigns in which he was engaged. "Fanfarront" and proud, the new and richly embroidered flag he commanded represented thesymbolic and hitherto honorable "Grue, " in a guise as "fanfarront" asCount Michel himself. Assuming the title of prince, and for hispoverty-stricken little domain the powers and independence of a royalprincipality, he was not content to furnish the two thousand menrequired by the king, but rashly undertook to double the number. Stillmore rashly he left the levée of these troops to a delegate, who hastilyassembled a motley and disreputable collection of untrained men from allparts of the country, with a few ignorant peasants from Gruyère itselfwho were in no way fitted to sustain the valorous reputation of theircountry. Detained by the quarrels which against all advice hecontinually pursued with Geneva and Berne, he delegated his command ofthese troops to the same untrustworthy agent who had collected them, acertain Sire de Cugy of Vaud. At a critical moment in the battle ofCérisolles this helpless band of peasants not surprisingly took to theirheels and seriously endangered the victory of the French. The otherSwiss soldiers sustained their old reputation with prodigies of valor, but upon the Gruyèriens were lavished every epithet of contempt. Thepitiful episode was the object of many royal witticisms. To the kingwho "supposed that they were of the same stuff as the Confederates, " hischronicler du Bellay replied that "it was folly to disguise an ass as acharger"----"Why pay these cowards, " asked the king in return, "who fledlike _Grues hier_?" How important the little Swiss province was considered among the greatkingdoms of Europe, was again shown in the multitude and variety ofobservations in the contemporary memoirs upon the conduct of the men whountruthfully called themselves Gruyèriens. A comment of Rabelais in hisPantagruel, adds to the general reproach. "It has always been the customin war, to double pay for the day when the battle is won. With victorythere is profit and somewhat for payment; with defeat, it is shame todemand reward, as did the runaways of Gruyère after the battle ofSerizolles. " Thus Rabelais mocked the last Gruyère soldiers as Tassopraised the first, and an undeserved stigma was set on the banner whichhad been carried unstained through six centuries of warfare at home andabroad. [Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. THEODATE] With a persistency which deserved a better reward, Count Michel nowdetermined to redeem his disgrace, and joined the French armies in theprolonged attempt to relieve the city of St. Dizier, besieged by theimperial forces. But fortune on this occasion was unfavorable to theFrench and no glory was gained and no rehabilitation of the unfortunateGruyèriens. In a third campaign under the command of the Duc de Guise, Count Michel was again with the French before Boulogne, and a witness ofthe peace of Crépy which was signed at the moment when that city fellinto the hands of the English. Thus although putting forth every effortto restore the ancient reputation of his house, the unlucky Count Michelwas forced to return without laurels to Gruyère where, during the lastpeaceful years of the reign of François I, no further military servicewas required of him. But the Bernois still tormented him for recognitionof their sovereignty over the disputed seigneuries of Palézieux, andcontinued to lend him money, thus gradually and surely laying theirhands on his long coveted possessions. With a like calculatinggenerosity, Fribourg accepted mortgages on such portions of his propertyas were not already mortgaged to Berne, while Count Michel, like abutterfly caught in the closing net of its captors, lived gayly in thelingering sunshine of this false prosperity. A romantic imbroglio inwhich his cousin de Beaufort was involved afforded him congenialdistraction, and again served to attract the attention of the king ofFrance and the emperor to the affairs of Gruyère. Passing theirbrilliant youth together at the court of François I, where the youngsire de Beaufort was also "_Enfant du Roi_, " the comrades were alsoassociated in the mad escapades of the "_Lique de la Cuiller_, "against the Geneva republicans, and when de Beaufort carried off thebeautiful Marie de la Palud, it was to Gruyère that he fled, ridingmadly across country to ask Count Michel's protection. The mother of therunaway beauty--a certain Countess de la Varax, was determined torecover her daughter and as a bourgeoise of Berne, denounced theravisher to the city authorities, but when informed by the countess ofBeaufort that she had been married by bell and by book, and had CountMichel's promise to intercede in her favor, they declined to prosecuteher or her husband. Fribourg also took the side of the lovers, and senta letter in their behalf to the king of France. But the Countess de laVarax had already secured the support of both emperor and king, who, thinking the matter of high political importance, sent pressing lettersby their ambassadors to Berne and Fribourg and, later, to the Diet ofthe Confederation, commanding that de Beaufort should give up his bride. Informed of these royal and imperial commands, the Sire de Beaufortdeclared he would die rather than give up his wife or emerge from hisGruyère asylum, and prayed the seigneurs of Berne to write to the kingin his favor. Before the grave assemblage of the Confederation of theDiet at Baden, Count Michel magnificently declared that as for him hewould protect the refugees at all costs, and left the matter to thejustice of the delegates. The Diet as stoutly declining to dissolve alegalized marriage, defied the summons of the king and the emperor andordered the pursuit of the lovers to cease. The two counts of Gruyèreand of Beaufort were so gratified by this support that when the emperorprepared to invade Switzerland they offered to join the Confederate armyin the defence of their country. With the passing of this threat ofinvasion Count Michel lost his last opportunity of military distinction. The remainder of his reign was one long struggle with the net offinancial embarrassment which now encompassed him. The youthfulimpression of magnificence gained at the French court, the vanity of hisextraordinary beauty, the favor of the dazzling François I, the actualindependence of his imperial principality exalted his imagination to apitch of pretension utterly beyond his capacity of either leadership ororganization. He was fertile in imagination, persistent andindefatigable, but he had unfortunately inherited no trace of thefirmness or judgment displayed by the long line of his ancestors, whilefrom the intriguing de Vergy strain, he derived a treacherous and feebleduplicity, which lost him the confidence of the sovereigns he served andthe cities with which he was allied. Although maintaining an apparentfriendship with Berne and Fribourg, whose monetary assistance heconstantly demanded, he succeeded by a complicated system of loans andpartial payments of interest in possessing himself of a long line ofchâteaux-forts extending from Gruyère to the Pays de Gex. As he was theacknowledged head of the still existing league "de la Cuiller, " hisacquisition of this formidable line of fortresses only too clearlyindicated his design of restoring the supremacy of the nobles inSwitzerland, and by a brilliant dash for liberty at once to obliteratethe power and the embarrassing financial claims of Berne and Fribourg. His friends had already begun to collect ammunition, and apparitions ofarmed bands were reported to Berne, when a warning from the Frenchambassador that a project was on foot to threaten their liberties and toreëstablish the exiled duke of Savoy, caused the authorities to sendword to the baillis in the several departments to watch Count Michel andfind out the secret of his intentions. When he was summoned to appear atBerne to account for these suspicious occurrences, Count Michelforthwith abandoned his far-reaching and unpracticable scheme, and senta request to the council asking for time to prepare the documents toestablish his innocence. Vanished now were his splendid hopes ofreëstablishing the noblesse under his leadership, and crushed under theenormous debts which he had incurred in the acquisition of the nowuseless fortresses, he was forced to make a supreme effort to preservehimself and his domain from utter and imminent ruin. His longattachment to François I, although rewarded by the very considerabledignity of the royal Order of St. Michæl, had been far less profitablein substantial results, for his old master, according to his custom, hadfailed to pay either the salaries of his positions at court or thepensions alloted to Gruyère according to the terms of the PerpetualPeace. To the arrears of these pensions and salaries, Count Michel addedthe expenses of his various expeditions with the French armies and thepay of the soldiers who had so disgraced him at Cérisolles. The sum ofthese claims, drawn up in an interminable document and presented toFrançois I's son and successor Henri II, amounted to no less than1, 700, 000 francs. King Henri, who had by no means forgotten the sort ofservice rendered by these soldiers, was irritated at the fantastic sumof Count Michel's claims, and after a long delay offered half of thearrears of the pay of his soldiers but rejected the other demands, declaring that as a knight of the Order of St. Michæl the count was aFrench subject and had no right as a Confederate to the pensions grantedby the terms of the Perpetual Peace. This offer Count Michel indignantlyrefused, threatening to send back the Order of St. Michæl, and appealingto the Diet to confirm his undoubted status as a Confederate. Berne andFribourg and at length the Diet ratified this claim and sent messengersto the king recommending its recognition, but assigned the greatlyreduced sum of 60, 000 francs as the amount of the pensions due. The kingreplying that he would in no case alter his decision, the Berneauthorities, with a singular consideration for their unfortunate debtorprocured the additional recommendations of all the cantons; but the kingstill insisted that as Chevalier of St. Michæl, the count was bound tocome to Paris to present his claims before the tribunal of the order. The count, however, as persistently refused to go to Paris "to be mockedby the King, " and defiantly proposed that the latter should be summonedto personally appear before the Diet. A less extravagant demand, a lessobstinate refusal, would have surely obtained a better recognition fromthe monarch who "never broke his word, " but failing to persuade eitherthe king or his claimant, the Confederates were forced to abandon theirintervention and Count Michæl got nothing at all. Ill and despairing, henow abandoned the administration of his hopelessly involved estates tohis brother François, who with the aid of an appointed council vainlyessayed to bring order out of confusion. In an open assembly the peoplewere asked to guarantee a new loan on the promise of the cession of allthe Gruyère revenues at a fixed date. Irritated but still faithful totheir ruler they consented, but the delay thus obtained only postponedthe inevitable disaster. Berne and Fribourg now announced theirintention of assuming the debts of the entirely mortgaged domain anddividing it between them. The unhappy people of Gruyère prepared towitness the dispossession of their ruler and the dismemberment of theirbeloved country when Count Michel played his last card, marrying throughthe good offices of his uncle Claude de Vergy, (who had now succeededhis father as maréchal of Burgundy) the widow of the Baron d'Alègre, Madeleine de Miolans, a daughter of a once illustrious Savoyard family. To her devotion and that of his de Vergy's relatives, who spared nothingbut the necessary funds to avert his impending ruin, Michel owed a shortreprieve from the execution of his creditors. Four months' delay wasgranted his wife in which to raise the interest due on the loans; butalthough journeying to Paris and soliciting every influence to procurethe required sum, the countess of Gruyère failed in her efforts. Thepoor lady now saw the end of her dream of rehabilitating the fallenfortunes of the man she had so unwisely married. How potent was thecharm of the bankrupt hero who could still inspire her unlimiteddevotion was still better proved by the affection of his half brotherFrançois. Modest, dignified and charitable, as his brilliant senior waswasteful and rash, François' loyalty was unaltered by any disgrace ofmisfortune. But in the very climax of his ills Count Michel lost thisinvaluable brother and friend. In a letter to his implacable executorshe thus poured out his grief: "Sirs, this letter is to inform you that in addition to all themisfortunes and adversities, illnesses and otherwise, which it haspleased God to send me, it has been His good pleasure to take from me mybrother François d'Aubonne who died yesterday morning at eleven o'clockat Gruyère. The sorrow and grief which I suffer, dear Sirs, you cannotimagine, at thus losing my second self and the brother who has renderedme constant loyalty and service. Therefore, to you who are my chiefmasters, fathers and friends, I confide my sorrow, praying you as goodfathers, friends, lords and ancient protectors of my house to consoleand assist me as has hitherto been your good pleasure. " "Fanfarront" no longer, but helpless as a child in the face of the illshe had wrought, Count Michel sent his courageous wife on her many futileerrands in his behalf, while he waited alone at the château for theinevitable end. Writing again and again to Fribourg and Berne, declaringthat his illness gave him no peace and that the slightest effort tothink redoubled his pains, he found no better occupation for one of hissolitary days than to re-read his treaty with Fribourg. "Magnifique Monsieur l'Avoyer, and honored lords, to your good graces Iaffectionately commend myself. "While I was sitting the other day, overwhelmed by the sufferings of mypoor body, I began to re-read my treaty of Combourgeoisie with yourcity, to distract the ennui of my malady, when the countess' little dogwho had been gamboling about me dragged off, while I was not looking, the ribbon and seal, which greatly annoyed me. I send you back thepaper, therefore, asking you to be as good as to affix another seal, bywhich you will greatly oblige him who in heart and affection, MagnifiqueMonsieur l'Avoyer, is entirely your good citizen and servant. " The four months' respite had now passed, and the countess with herdevoted sister presented herself before the Diet to make a last effortto procure a postponement of the sentence of dispossession. In silencethe deputies listened to her tearful appeal, when realizing that noanswer was possible and unwilling to listen to the fatal decree, thecountess and her sister requested permission to retire. Respectfullyconducting the weeping women from the chamber, the delegates thenformally authorized the transference of Gruyère to the cities of Berneand Fribourg. At ten o'clock in the evening of this same fatal day, Count Michel, followed by a single faithful domestic, mounted his horseand rode away from Gruyère. The shadows of a November night, the sighingwinds, the falling leaves, were the fitting accompaniment of this tragicdeparture. Significant also was it that with the fall of the house ofGruyère, the last remaining feudal sovereignty, the old chivalric orderforever passed from Switzerland. With the extinction of the power ofSavoy, and the establishment of the inclusive league of cantons andcities representing the new and united nation, the little principalityof Gruyère was in any case doomed to the acceptance of the prevailingform of government. But although hastening by his extravagance the fallof his house, Count Michel had various difficulties for which he was notpersonally responsible. With the repeated enfranchisement of his peoplefrom their feudal contributions and taxes, his revenues had already beenseriously reduced, and the long legal process and armed resistancenecessitated by his grandfather's struggle with the rival de Vergys, hadexhausted a large part of the accumulated capital. Thus only a rigidsystem of retrenchment would have sufficed to preserve the financialintegrity of Gruyère. For such an administration Count Michel wasutterly unfitted both by character and training, and he precipitated hisown inevitable ruin, when, yielding to his unbounded and unrealizableambitions, he essayed to reverse the course of events and restore thepower of feudality in Switzerland, at the very moment of itsdisorganization. His refusal to accept any portion of his claims on theFrench crown, his rejection of the proposition to sell, while it was yettime, any part of his estates, were examples of his immoderate andunreasoning pride. But another cause, the machinations of the powerfuland envious de Vergys, singularly conspired to hasten the finaldismemberment of the coveted province. Causing first the exhaustion ofthe Gruyère revenues, through the forced and loveless alliance with theruling and legitimate line, the de Vergy strain produced in Michel achangeling heir, who was empty of heart as he was bankrupt in purse. Thus as the old order of feudalism, yielding to the progress of freethought, free speech and free faith, in the whole extent of Europecrumbled and fell, then was fulfilled in the already democraticSwitzerland the old prophecy of the fool Chalamala, that "the Berne Bearwould some day eat the Grue in the caldron of Fribourg. " To Berne in thefinal division was allotted the mountainous regions of Gessenay andchâteau d'Oex, while Fribourg took possession of the lower pasturelands, the city and the château, and the château itself they convertedinto the seat of government. In the deserted castle where for sixcenturies Count Michel's vigorous forbears had pacifically ruled withtheir vigorous sons, the last pitiful illegitimate child of the line wasdiscovered by the Bailli of Fribourg. Sent with her mother, an olddomestic of the château, the little Guillauma was brought up in the_hospice_ and supported, like her mother, at the expense of the city. Thus finished in utter disgrace the illustrious line of pastoral kings. At the château of Oron, where the countess of Gruyère had fled afterthe decree of dispossession, her despairing husband joined her. In thecold of the November weather, the empty château, without servants, heator supplies, was only a temporary refuge, although the council of Bernemercifully sent the countess a small sum of money for her immediatenecessities. The paternal patience of the calculating Berne authoritieswas solicited by their equally hypocritical victim, in the followinghumble appeal sent by Count Michel upon his arrival at Oron. "Since it has pleased God so to chastise and afflict me that I amcompelled to depart from your Excellencies and to follow the path He haspointed out to me, I praise Him in that His punishment is meted out tome in mercy and not according to my sins; my absence and inability toserve you as I have all my life desired being of equal affliction withmy loss. I have always had such confidence in your great kindness andhumanity, that I am assured that your magnificences will have compassionon me and my wife, who is departing to solicit you as humbly as possibleto pardon my not appearing before you, as my heart is so desolate that Ican say or do naught to help in these circumstances. Therefore, may itplease you to listen to her proposition and to grant as great a degreeof honor and welfare as is possible to your child. " Although Berne had permitted the temporary residence of the deposedcount at Oron, and had granted to the countess the revenues of a smallpiece of land, the refugees soon left the "logis" which they found "_sifroid et si mal fourni de vivres_, " and repaired to Burgundy and theprotection of their powerful de Vergy relatives. For many years thedispossessed princeling was destined to pursue his adventurous career inthe various kingdoms of Europe. With his immediate necessities suppliedby his wife's income, in the accustomed luxury of the châteaux of hisrelatives he quickly recovered his old pose of an independent and onlytemporarily deposed potentate, and proceeding to Paris in his characteras Chevalier du Roi, was able to obtain a surprising degree ofrecognition. Welcomed by Catherine de Medici as a Catholic among theCatholics, he was present as a councilor of the King's Order at theprivate and preliminary trial conducted by the queen mother of theassassin of his old general and commander the Duc de Guise. King CharlesIX may possibly have granted a part of Count Michel's claims upon theFrench crown, and was in any case so much influenced by hisrepresentations that he wrote to Berne and Fribourg recommending hisreëstablishment in his estates. When informed by the council of therespective cities of the conditions of his dispossession, King Charlesmade no further effort on his behalf. The still undiscouraged adventurerthen repaired to Flanders to the palace and protection of his powerfulaunt the Sénéschale of Hainault. From Hainault as a base of supplies, hejourneyed about Flanders and Belgium, finding temporary sympathizers andsupporters in various notabilities with whom he consulted as to the bestmethod of recovering his estates, or at least wresting them from thehands of Berne and Fribourg. The Cardinal de Granvelle, who wasintimately known to the king of Spain, and the Belgian ambassador to theSpanish court were solicited to represent his claims for recognition asa good Catholic to his Spanish majesty. To his suggestions that Gruyèrewould be a valuable addition to the Spanish territories, no moreattention was paid than to his desire to be decorated with the Order ofthe Toison d'Or and to be received as a colonel in the Spanish army. ForPhilip II, enlightened by the cardinal as to the character of thepretendant for his favor, had no wish to tempt him from the service ofFrance, and still less to embroil himself with the Swiss Confederationby intriguing with a dispossessed bankrupt for the recovery of his lostestates. Deserted by the kings of France and Spain, the count, since thedeath of his faithful wife, old and alone, proceeded to the court of theemperor. A new friend, the Alsatian Count Bollwiler, was solicited toarrange for him another advantageous matrimonial alliance, while theEmperor Maximilian II was so moved by the recital of his woes that hesent a letter to Berne and Fribourg requesting that in view of thecount's advanced age and many adversities, he should be permitted torepurchase and enjoy his lost principality for the brief remainder ofhis days. A long memorial from the count accompanied the emperor'sletter and announced that with the aid of his new and powerful friends, he would soon be in a position to buy back Gruyère. He ended with anappeal for compassion on his bald head and his white beard. With respectful attention to the august request of of the emperor, Berneand Fribourg replied that no provision had been made for the repurchaseof Gruyère, and detailed the conditions by which they had acquired theproperty. The emperor thereupon declined to renew his recommendations, and after this final defeat, Count Michel, deprived of his last hope ofroyal or imperial assistance, the neediest and loneliest of adventurers, lived a hand-to-mouth existence with the faithful domestic who hadfollowed him since the day he had departed from Gruyère. Nursing alwaysthe same chimera of some day returning triumphant to his lost province, he pursued his peregrinations, finding a final refuge in the Burgundianchâteau of Thalémy, belonging to his cousin François de Vergy, where hedied at last in March of the year 1576. On a day in May a messenger fromBurgundy announced his decease to his uncle the protonataire Dom Pierrede Gruyère. With tolling of bells the news was proclaimed, and a monthlater, before a great throng of people from all parts of the country, amemorial service was held in the church at Gruyère. "_Desolatione magnadesolata est Grueria, ploratus et ulleratus auditi sunt in Grueria, etin omnibus finibus eius. _" With such a text the last Gruyère prelatecelebrated the honors due to the last count of his line. "Desolate witha great desolation, " in truth were the people who, bitterly weeping, lamented the loss of their happy independence, preserved through so manylong centuries under the kindly rule of their beloved counts. A halo ofmelancholy romance had gathered through the popular traditions about thefigure of Count Michel, so that he has strangely become the typicalrepresentative of the beauty, strength and valor of his far worthierpredecessors. Conflicting reports about the place of his death andentombment, strange tales of his reappearance, have made him a secondBoabdil, unburied, always returning to the beloved home of his youth. Anhallucinated exile in life, his ghost, hallucinated, ever returning, haunts his lost and lovely Gruyère. CHAPTER X GRUYÈRE WITHOUT ITS COUNTS Nearly four hundred years have passed since the fall of its counts, butthe merciless march of democracy, although changing the government ofGruyère has left the people strangely unaltered. In spite of theinjunctions of the Lutheran Bernois, they still danced and sang, anduntil the dawn of the present century still spoke their musical patois. The château, long used as the residence of a préfet of Fribourg, wasoffered for sale when in the middle of the 19th century the prefecturewas transferred to Bulle. For a long time left to decay, it was finallydoomed to demolition, when for the same sum offered by a housebreaker ofVevey, it was happily purchased by M. Bovy of Geneva. His brother, apainter and pupil of Ingres, devoted the remaining strength left to himafter a disabling paralysis, to the restoration of the château, and inthis enthusiastic service exhausted the family fortune. His friends andcompanions in Paris gathered about him, and to the beautiful frescoeswith which he adorned the walls of the Hall of the Chevaliers were addedthe landscape vignettes of the salon. Thus several Corot canvases arestrangely found in this out of the way corner in the Swiss mountains, alovely tribute of the great modern master to the long past glories ofGruyère. In the jousting court flowers bloom bravely through the passingseasons, the old well with its moss covered roof jewels the terrace withits emerald green; through the chapel windows the painted light streamsover walls where in silver on scarlet still flies the Grue. On the clocktower, still circling, the hands mark the passing of time and the bellsin the church still ring out their summons to prayer. At Easter the"Bénichons" bring the people together for their old dances and songs, and in the long "Veillées" the lads and the maids through the summernights or in winter beside their bright fires, watch the dawning oflove. The maidens, like Juliet, lean from low vine-covered windows, andwith beckoning candles invite their lovers to climb. The spring pasturesstill blossom with marjolaine and narcissus, with cowslips and rue, theorchards still redden in autumn with ripe fruit which falls with thebreeze, with tressed wheat, goats, and cows black and white; the greenfertile country abounds, and as in Provence a Mireille is the poet'sdream of its maids, so is "_Marie la Tresseuse_" in poems and tales thewheat weaving girl of Gruyère. The "Armaillis" still drive their herdsto the mountains, still singing "_Le ranz des vaches_, " the song whichamong all others best reveals the soul of their race. "Lioba, " "Lioba, "one should hear the refrain as it echoes from the valleys and hills, thesame cry, musical, lingering, melancholy, which through century aftercentury has been sung by generations of Gruyère herdsmen. "Le Ranz des Vaches. " The herdsmen of the Colombettes, To milk the cows arose. Ha! Ha! Lioba. Come! Come! Large and small, The black, the white, the short, the tall, Starry forehead, red and gold, All the young and all the old. Under the oak tree come! Ha! Ha! Lioba. Bells came first, Jet black came last, But at the stream they stopped aghast. Ha! Ha! Lioba. Alas, poor Pierre! what will you do? Trouble enough you have, 'tis true. Ha! Ha! Lioba. At the Curé's door You now must tap, He'll tell you how to cross the gap. Ha! Ha! Lioba. And what should I to the Curé say? A mass shall I beg, or will he pray To help my cows go over? Ha! Ha! Lioba. The Curé he, of a cheese was fain, "A creamy cheese, or your cows remain On the other side, 'tis very plain. " Ha! Ha! Lioba. "Send us your pretty maid, " said Pierre, "To carry the cheese, I speak you fair. " Ha! Ha! Lioba. "Too pretty by far is my rosy maid, She might not return, " the Curé said. Ha! Ha! Lioba. "What belongs to the Church We may not take, Confession humble we then should make. " Ha! Ha! Lioba. "Go to friend Pierre, The mass shall be said, Good luck be yours, rich cheese and bread. " Ha! Ha! Lioba. Gayly Pierre went to his waiting herd, And freely they passed at the Curé's word. Ha! Ha! Lioba. The soft terminations of the romanized French are never more musicalthan in this famous song which, during their foreign campaigns, reducedthe Swiss soldiers to such weeping longing for home that it wasforbidden by their generals. Melancholy as is the repeated refrain, thecouplets reveal a ravishing picture of the customs and the observingsatirical spirit of the Gruyèrien. Is not the quip of the Curé worthy ofany son of the Emerald Isle? [Illustration: JOUSTING COURT] In truth this "_verte Gruyère_" shut away from the world by itsmountains as Ireland is by the sea, is like a lost island, fabled, remote, its speech Provençal, its soul purely Celt. Laughter loving, warlike and brave in the idyllic years of their prime, the Gruyèriens ofto-day are still gay, caustic of wit as they are kindly at heart; and, in a changed world, as tenacious of their new republican rights as theywere erstwhile valiant vassals to their pastoral kings. The source ofinnumerable songs and legends in the rich and melodious Gruyère speech, still pastoral, this country has been celebrated in its exquisite, unchanging beauty by many poets; its romances and its national song havebeen the themes of dramatic and musical inspirations. Not yet has thecruel light of modern day chased the fairies, the may-maidens, the"servans" and the evil spirits from the forests and the caves. The placewhere the devil, joining in a coraule, drew the dancing people over aprecipice is still shunned by young and old; with pride also will theypoint out the slope of the Gruyère hill where when the men were fightingat the _Pré de Chênes_ the women drove their goats, each bearing alighted candle, through the darkness upon an invading horde of Bernois, who, thinking they were devils, fled in affright. For the refreshment ofthe good spirits who guard the herds, basins of fresh milk are still setin every mountain chalet. The origin of the Gruyère customs, like thecoraules and the still observed habit of hanging wreaths on their doorposts or in the oak groves, have a derivation of the most distantantiquity, in the Chaldean cradle of the race, in the myths of India andthe Orient. The personified forces of Nature, the cloud wraiths of themountains, the lisping voices of the streams, for many centurieshaunting the imaginations of the people, still live in their legends, asthey do in Celtic Ireland. The idyllic loveliness of the country isdeliciously completed by the vines which are trained over the houses, bythe flowers which grow in their windows, so that from spring toNovember Gruyère is a garden, ringed by blue mountains under a sky ofpure blue. In the Romand country are many exquisite towns such as Romontand Rue, Estavayer, Oron and Morat--happily preserved in their unalteredmediæval perfection. But the heart of this country is Gruyère, impregnated with the romance of the departed days of chivalry, itspeople affectionately faithful to the memory of their noble and belovedrulers. As for the Celtic wit, ever present in their sayings and legends, it ischaracteristically shown in the following little story of the "Fountainof Lessoc. " THE FOUNTAIN OF LESSOC It happened one day that good father Colin went to the fair at châteaud'Oex, where he successfully transacted his business, particularly atthe tavern. On his return journey he stopped at the inn at Montbovon, not so much for the pleasure of drinking as to chat with his oldcronies, with the result that it was midnight before he was on his wayto Lessoc. A cold welcome awaited him at home. "Thou art a selfish and adrunken wight, and the donkey is dying of thirst, " said Fanchon withmany reproaches for his evil conduct. Greatly ashamed was Colin, and toquickly repair his error untied la Cocotte and led her to the fountain. The night was superb, and in the water was reflected the shining diskof the moon. Precisely in this silver spot, the poor Cocotte began toease her thirst when, "Behold, " said her master, "she is drinking themoon. " Then suddenly the moon went under a cloud, and at the same momentCocotte, quite satisfied, lifted her head, "Heavens!" cried Colin, "themoon has gone and my donkey has drunk her. " Not a word did he say to his wife, but all night watched over Cocotte inthe stable. In the morning, up and down the village street, he drove herto help her digestion. "It matters little to me, " he said to himself, "what becomes of the moon, for there is a new one each month, but Iintend to take care of my good donkey. " And soon all Lessoc marveled tosee Colin and Cocotte, Cocotte and Colin, passing and repassingcontinually over the same road, one apparently frightened, the othersadly bored by the exercise. "Is your donkey ill?" asked the good mayorat last. "Woe is me, she is ruined, " replied Colin, "for she hasswallowed the moon and will not give her up. " Whereupon the mayor, aftergrave reflection remarked, "If la Cocotte has not yet gotten rid of themoon, poor Colin already is rid of his senses. " At the communal council, the mayor presented at length the strange case. "If a new moon appears, " he declared, "we may be reassured, but to avoidthe possibility of further accident, we will place a spacious roof overthe fountain. " This wise decision was adopted to the generalsatisfaction, and such was the authentic origin of the elegant fountainof Lessoc. In ancient chronicles and modern publications many similar stories arerepeated, while a multitude of ballads, of legends taken from the lipsof the old peasants, constitute a precious and abounding document of theancient Gruyère customs. But uniquely characteristic as are these Gruyère people, the history oftheir country is still more extraordinary. Almost negligible in wealthor population, the little mountain province, lying midway betweenFrance, Austria, and Savoy, held in the days of its prosperity an almostunexplainably important position beside the great monarchies of thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Midway also between the Berne andFribourg republics, the Gruyère counts held something very nearlyapproaching a balance of power between Savoy and the Confederates. Feudal by race and by the independence of their little principality, they were so trusted by the Confederates and so powerful with Savoy, that they repeatedly acted as arbitrators in their mutual quarrels, andby this high influence were sharers and at times framers of the treatieswith the neighboring kingdoms, and admitted to the diplomatic councilsof Europe. They were not only valorous in the defence of their countrybut by the Latin charm of their race were adored by their subjects, andheld in great favor by the dukes of Savoy, themselves allied by manyinter-marriages with all the crowns of Europe. So important was thelittle Gruyère to the French kings and the emperors of Germany that, ashas been related, they occupied themselves with its internal affairs, attempting to intervene in such matters as runaway marriages and therival claims for succession. But the attitude of its rulers towardsroyal and imperial mandates was so independent, their maintenance oftheir feudal sovereignty was so tenacious that they preserved the highand happy ideals of their house, and were the last of the Swiss noblesto yield to the march of democracy. Their long rule, extending through six centuries of internal wars, during times when oppression was the prerogative of their order, wasstained by no single act of cruelty. In the peculiar charm of theirrace, in the unique influence of their position in Europe, as in theunbroken length of their rule, the counts of Gruyère were the mostimportant of all the noble Swiss families. Titles and aristocraticprivileges have long since vanished from republican Switzerland, whereliberty triumphant, the age-wrought jewel of a thousand years, shinesclearly among the tumults of the warring nations. But remote among itsmountains, a cherished place of pilgrimage and refreshment, the littlefeudal city still crowns its green hill, and in the Gruyère people theCeltic soul, undying fresh and free, still sings in their love songs andwar songs, still speaks in their legends and tales of its birth in themorning of time. APPENDIX The traditions of Romand Helvetia have preserved the memory of theestablishment of Vandal or Burgundian hordes in that part of Gaul. Thus has arisen the belief that the once wild region traversed by theriver Sarine came into the possession of some chief of these tribes whothere settled with his followers. The unavowed author (Bonsetten) of ahistory of the Counts of Gruyère is of the opinion that it is possiblethat, in accordance with the customs of the Germanic tribes, thatGruerius, the hero of the popular legend, or his warriors, might havecarried a Grue (crane) as a symbol of a migratory race on their helmetsor shields, and that the leader himself might have adopted the nameGruerius from the emblem. The theory, however, disagrees entirely with the tradition that theBurgundians were so fond of liberty that they bore the figure of a catupon their banners. It is well known that the arms of Gruyère are a Grueon a scarlet field, and this circumstance alone has evidently given riseto the anonymous author's conjecture. His opinion not only has nopositive proof to support it, but has no color of probability in itsfavor. J. J. Hisely, author of "Le Comté de Gruyère. " BIBLIOGRAPHY _Histoire du Comté de Gruyère. _ J. -J. Hisely. 1851, Lausanne. _Monuments de l'Histoire du Comté de Gruyère. _ Abbé Gremaud. _Mémoires et Documents_ publiés par la Société d'Histoire de la SuisseRomande. Vol I à VII, IX, X, XI. 1838 à ce jour. _Die Gräfin von Gruyère_, de Rodt. (Der Schweizerische GeschichtForster. Berne, 1847. ) _Die Schweiz in Ihren Ritterbürgen. _ Berne, 1828. _Tableaux Historiques de la Suisse. _ Vol. I, abbé Girard. Premiertableau, Gruyère. Carouge (Léman), 1802. _Le Conservateur Suisse. _ Lausanne, 1857. _Courses dans la Gruyère. _ Hubert Charles. Paris, 1826. _Souvenirs de la Gruyère. _ Auguste Majeux, Fribourg. _Notice Historique sur Gruyère. _ J. -H. Thorin, Fribourg, 1882. _La Contrée d'Oron. _ Ch. Pache. Lausanne, 1895. _Histoire de Charlemagne_, suivie de l'Histoire de Bourgogne. Gaillard. _La Gruyère illustrée. _ Fribourg, 1890, 1er fasc. ; 1891, 2e fasc. ;1892, 3e fasc. ; 1894, 4e et 5e fasc. ; 1898, 6e fasc. ; 1903, 7efasc; 1913, 8e fasc. _Les Alpes Fribourgeoises. _ La Gruyère. Lausanne. _Légendes des Alpes Vaudoises. _ Cérésole, Lausanne. _Etrennes Fribourgeoises. _ Fribourg, 1846-1900. _Cités et Pays Suisses. _ G. De Reynold, Lausanne. _Contes et Légendes de la Suisse historique_. G. De Reynold, Lausanne. _Histoire littéraire de la Suisse au XVIIIe siècle. _ G. De Reynold. (LeDoyen Bridel). Lausanne. _La Suisse Inconnue. _ V. Tissot. Paris, 1888. _Scènes de la Vie Gruyérienne. _ Scioberet, Fribourg, 1854. _Légendes Fribourgeoises. _ J. Genoud, Fribourg, 1892. _Chronique du Chev. Louis de Diessbach. _ Genève, 1901. _Histoire de la Confédération Suisse. _ J. Dierauer, Lausanne. _Histoire de la Suisse racontée au peuple. _ Gobat, Neuchâtel. _Histoire de la Confédération Suisse. _ Vuillemin, Lausanne, 1875. _Histoire des Suisses. _ Jean de Muller. _Dictionnaire biographique des Genevois et Vaudois. _ A. De Montet, Lausanne, 1877. _Dictionnaire du Canton de Fribourg. _ Kuenlin, Fribourg, 1872. _Histoire du Canton de Fribourg. _ Berchtold, Fribourg, 1841-1852. _Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. _ Gibbon. _Histoire des Gaulois. _ Picot, Genève, 1804. _Oeuvres. _ Ammien-Marcelin, Lyon, 1778. _Histoire des Gaulois. _ Thierry, Paris, 1860. _Voyage dans l'ancienne Helvétie. _ Miéville, Lausanne, 1806. _Mémoire historique de la République Séquanienne. _ Gollut, Dôle, 1592. _Tacitus. _ Historical Works. London. _L'origine des Bourguignons. _ St-Julien, Paris, 1581. _Histoire de France. _ Martin, Paris, 1878. _François Ier. _ Coignet, Paris, 1886. _Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne. _ Barante, Paris, 1825. _Journal d'un voyage en Italie et en Allemagne. _ Montaigne, Rome. _Chronique de Savoie. _ Paradin, Lyon, 1552. _Histoire généalogique de la Royale Maison de Savoie. _ Guicheron, Turin, 1780. _Histoire de Savoie. _ Perrin, Chambéry, 1903. _Collection universelle des mémoires particuliers relatifs à l'Histoirede France du XIIIe au XVIe siècle. _ (Philippe de Commines, Martin duBellay, le Chevalier Bayard, etc. ). Paris, 1785-1790. _Portraits des Rois de France. _ Mercier, Paris, 1845. _Histoire de la ville d'Orbe et de son château dans le moyen âge. _ F. DeGingins, Lausanne, 1855. _Chillon, étude historique. _ Vuillemin, Lausanne, 1851. _Histoire des Croisades. _ Michaud, Paris, 1818. _Jérusalem délivrée. _ Tasso, Paris, 1774. _Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle. _ Voltaire, La Haye, 1753. _History of England. _ Hume, London. _Chronique de Froissart. _ London, 1860 (environ). _Le Léman on Voyage pittoresque. _ Bailly de la Londe, Paris, 1842. _Voyage dans la Suisse Française. _ de Bougy, Paris, 1860. _Flâneries Historiques au Pays Romand; Sites Historiques au Pays Romand;Pérégrinations Historiques au Pays Romand. _ Jamin, Genève. _En Pays Romand. Anthologie des poètes de la Suisse Romande. _ Paris. _Recueil de morceaux patois. _ A. Bogivue. _Dernières Poésies. Les Gruyériennes. _ E. Rambert. _Etudes sur l'Histoire littéraire de la Suisse Française. _ Gauthier. _Chroniques. _ Diebold Schilling, Berne. _Histoires de la Gruyère_ (ms). F. -J. Castella. _Les Châteaux du Lac Bleu. Poirson_, Paris et Genève.