hwyz through some dispute, but on
learning their country's danger had hastily returned to sacrifice their
lives, if need be, for their native land.

Thus a strong and well-appointed army, fully disciplined and led by
warriors famed for courage and warlike deeds, was annihilated by a small
band of peasants, few of whom had ever struck a blow in war, but who
were animated by the highest spirit of patriotism and love of liberty,
and welcomed death rather than a return to their old state of slavery
and oppression. The short space of an hour and a half did the work.
Austria was defeated and Switzerland was free.

_A MAD EMPEROR._

If genius to madness is allied, the same may be said of eccentricity,
and certainly Wenceslas, Emperor of Germany and King of Bohemia, had an
eccentricity that approached the vagaries of the insane. The oldest son
of Charles IV., he was brought up in pomp and luxury, and was so
addicted to sensual gratification that he left the empire largely to
take care of itself, while he gave his time to the pleasures of the
bottle and the chase. Born to the throne, he was crowned King of Bohemia
when but three years of age, was elected King of the Romans at fifteen,
and two years afterwards, in 1378, became Emperor of Germany, when still
but a boy, with regard for nothing but riot and rude frolic.

So far as affairs of state were concerned, the volatile youth either
totally neglected them or treated them with a ridicule that was worse
than neglect. Drunk two-thirds of his time, he now dismissed the most
serious matters with a rude jest, now met his councillors with brutal
fits of rage. The Germans deemed him a fool, and were not far amiss in
their opinion; but as he did not meddle with them, except in holding an
occasional useless diet at Nuremberg, they did not meddle with him. The
Bohemians, among whom he lived, his residence being at Prague, found his
rule much more of a burden. They were exposed to his savage caprices,
and regarded him as a brutal and senseless tyrant.

That there was method in his madness the following anecdote will
sufficiently show. Former kings had invested the Bohemian nobles with
possessions which he, moved by cupidity, determined to have back. This
is the method he took to obtain them. All the nobles of the land were
invited to meet him at Willamow, where he received them in a black tent,
which opened on one side into a white, and on the other into a red one.
Into this