d win
undying fame by an act of self-martyrdom. Arnold of Winkelried was his
name, a name which history is not likely soon to forget, for by an
impulse of the noblest devotion this brave patriot saved the liberties
of his native land.

[Illustration: STATUE OF ARNOLD WINKELRIED.]

Seeing that there was but one hope for the Swiss, and that death must be
the lot of him who gave them that hope, he exclaimed to his comrades, in
a voice of thunder,--

"Faithful and beloved confederates, I will open a passage to freedom and
victory! Protect my wife and children!"

With these words, he rushed from his ranks, flung himself upon the
enemy's steel-pointed line, and seized with his extended arms as many of
the hostile spears as he was able to grasp, burying them in his body,
and sinking dead to the ground.

His comrades lost not a second in availing themselves of this act of
heroic devotion. Darting forward, they rushed over the body of the
martyr to liberty into the breach he had made, forced others of the
spears aside, and for the first time since the fray began reached the
Austrians with their weapons.

A hasty and ineffective effort was made to close the breach. It only
added to the confusion which the sudden assault had caused. The line of
hurrying knights became crowded and disordered. The furious Swiss broke
through in increasing numbers. Overcome with the heat, many of the
knights fell from exhaustion, and died without a wound, suffocated in
their armor. Others fell below the blows of the Swiss. The line of
spears, so recently intact, was now broken and pierced at a dozen
points, and the revengeful mountaineers were dealing death upon their
terrified and feebly-resisting foes.

The chief banner of the host had twice sunk and been raised again, and
was drooping a third time, when Ulric, a knight of Aarburg, seized and
lifted it, defending it desperately till a mortal blow laid him low.

"Save Austria! rescue!" he faltered with his dying breath.

Duke Leopold, who was pushing through the confused throng, heard him and
caught the banner from his dying hand. Again it waved aloft, but now
crimsoned with the blood of its defender.

The Swiss, determined to capture it, pressed upon its princely bearer,
surrounded him, cut down on every side the warriors who sought to defend
him and the standard.

"Since so many nobles and knights have ended their days in my cause, let
me honorably follow them," cried the despairing