speech, he fascinated where he controlled. The princely air of
pride and power, seen in the portraits of Pierre de Savoy, the blazing
dark eyes and mobile mouth of his Gallo-Roman ancestors, present the
truly majestic semblance of the founder of a dynasty and the eminently
sympathetic overlord of the Gallo-Roman counts of Gruyere. Such was the
great ruler and law-giver who easily supplanting his niece as head of
the house of Savoy, reduced to a loyal vassalage all the nobles of Roman
Switzerland. Not without opposition from the bishops and feudal lords
nor without jealousy from the German emperor did Count Pierre arrive at
a 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 his
castle of Chillon, he reached the heights above Lake Leman. There he
surveyed the banners of the noble army, and the luxurious tents in
which they took their ease before his castle. Hiding his soldiers at
Villeneuve, alone and unobserved he rowed to Chillon, where from the
great tower he watched the young nobles as they danced and reveled in
jeweled velvets and shining armor, with the maidens of the lake-side.
Then at a given signal, he emerged to lead his waiting army to the
complete rout of the surprised besiegers."

Among these holiday warriors was Rodolphe III of Gruyere, who with his
comrades--eighty-four barons, seigneurs, chevaliers, ecuyers and nobles
of the country--were taken to the castle of Chillon where, according to
the chronical: "_Comte Pierre ne les traita pas comme prisonniers mais
les festoya honorablement. Moult fut grande la despoilie et moult grande
le 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 overlord
at the chateau of Yverdun. Growing in favor with Pierre de Savoy and his
successors, the counts of Gruyere became their trusted courtiers and
counselors, and through many vicissitudes and many wars merited the
encomium of Switzerland's first historian, that the "Age of chivalry
produced no braver soldiers than these counts, their suzerain had no
more devoted vassals."

The submission of Rodolphe of Gruyere having been confirmed in formal
treaty, his grandson and successor Count Pierre the Third, loyally
supported during a long and brilliant reign the banners of his overlord