n in Switzerland, it was made highly penal to wear the
peacock's feather at any public assembly there.]

[Footnote 46: The bench reserved for the nobility.]

[Footnote 47: The Landamman was an officer chosen by the Swiss
Gemeinde, or Diet, to preside over them. The Banneret was an officer
intrusted with the keeping of the State Banner and such others as were
taken in battle.]

[Footnote 48: According to the custom by which, when the last male
descendent of a noble family died, his sword, helmet, and shield, were
buried with him.]

[Footnote 49: This frequently occurred. But in the event of an
imperial city being mortgaged for the purpose of raising money, it
lost its freedom, and was considered as put out of the realm.]

[Footnote 50: An allusion to the circumstance of the Imperial Crown
not being hereditary, but conferred by election on one of the Counts
of the Empire.]

[Footnote 51: These are the cots, or shealings, erected by the
herdsmen for shelter while pasturing their herds on the mountains
during the summer. These are left deserted in winter, during which
period Melchthal's journey was taken.]

[Footnote 52: It was the custom at the meetings of the Landes
Gemeinde, or Diet, to set swords upright in the ground as emblems of
authority.]

[Footnote 53: The Heribann was a muster of warriors similar to the
_arriere ban_ of France.]

[Footnote 54: A The Duke of Suabia, who
soon afterward assassinated his uncle for withholding his patrimony
from him.]

[Footnote 55: A sort of national militia.]

[Footnote 56: Rocks on shore of Lake Lucerne.]

[Footnote 57: An allusion to the gallant self-devotion of Arnold
Struthan of Winkelried, at the battle of Sempach [9th July, 1386], who
broke the Austrian phalanx by rushing on their lances, grasping as
many of them as he could reach, and concentrating them upon his
breast. The confederates rushed forward through the gap thus opened by
the sacrifice of their comrade, broke and cut down their enemy's
ranks, and soon became the masters of the field. "Dear and faithful
confederates, I will open you a passage. Protect my wife and
children," were the words of Winkelried, as he rushed to death.]

[Footnote 58: The URPHEDE was an oath of peculiar force. When a man,
who was at feud with another, invaded his lands and was worsted, he
often made terms with his enemy by swearing the _Urphede_, by which he
bound himself to depart, and never to return with a hostile
intenti