ty were at his
command.

The neighboring barons, alarmed at this rapid aggrandizement of
Rhodolph, formed an alliance to crush him. The mountaineers heard his
bugle call, and rushed to his aid. Zurich opened her gates, and her
marshaled troops hastened to his banner. From Hapsburg, and Rheinfelden,
and Suabia, and Brisgau, and we know not how many other of the
territorial possessions of the count, the vassals rushed to the aid of
their lord. They met in one of the valleys of Zurich. The battle was
short, and the confederated barons were put to utter flight. Some took
refuge in the strong castle of Balder, upon a rocky cliff washed by the
Albis. Rhodolph selected thirty horsemen and thirty footmen.

"Will you follow me," said he, "in an enterprise where the honor will be
equal to the peril?"

A universal shout of assent was the response. Concealing the footmen in
a thicket, he, at the head of thirty horsemen, rode boldly to the gates
of the castle, bidding defiance, with all the utterances and
gesticulations of contempt, to the whole garrison. Those on the
ramparts, stung by the insult, rushed out to chastise so impudent a
challenge. The footmen rose from their ambush, and assailants and
assailed rushed pell mell in at the open gates of the castle. The
garrison were cut down or taken captive, and the fortress demolished.
Another party had fled to the castle of Uttleberg. By an ingenious
stratagem, this castle was also taken. Success succeeded success with
such rapidity, that the confederate barons, struck with consternation,
exclaimed,

"All opposition is fruitless. Rhodolph of Hapsburg is invincible."

They consequently dissolved the alliance, and sought peace on terms
which vastly augmented the power of the conqueror.

Basle now incurred the displeasure of Rhodolph. He led his armies to the
gates of the city, and extorted satisfaction. The Bishop of Basle, a
haughty prelate of great military power, and who could summon many
barons to his aid, ventured to make arrogant demands of this warrior
flushed with victory. The palace and vast possessions of the bishop were
upon the other side of the unbridged Rhine, and the bishop imagined that
he could easily prevent the passage of the river. But Rhodolph speedily
constructed a bridge of boats, put to flight the troops which opposed
his passage, drove the peasants of the bishop everywhere before him, and
burned their cottages and their fields of grain. The bishop, appall