duke, and in a moment he
rushed into the midst of the hostile ranks, vanishing from the eyes of
his attendants. Blows rained on his iron mail. In the pressure of the
crowd he fell to the earth. While seeking to raise himself again in his
heavy armor, he cried, in his helpless plight, to a Swiss soldier, who
had approached him with raised weapon,--

"I am the Prince of Austria."

The man either heard not his words, or took no heed of princes. The
weapon descended with a mortal blow. Duke Leopold of Austria was dead.

The body of the slain duke was found by a knight, Martin Malterer, who
bore the banner of Freiburg. On recognizing him, he stood like one
petrified, let the banner fall from his hand, and then threw himself on
the body of the prince, that it might not be trampled under foot by the
contending forces. In this position he soon received his own
death-wound.

By this time the state of the Austrians was pitiable. The signal for
retreat was given, and in utter terror and dismay they fled for their
horses. Alas, too late! The attendants, seeing the condition of their
masters, and filled with equal terror, had mounted the horses, and were
already in full flight.

Nothing remained for the knights, oppressed with their heavy armor,
exhausted with thirst and fatigue, half suffocated with the scorching
heat, assailed on every side by the light-armed and nimble Swiss, but to
sell their lives as dearly as possible. In a short time more all was at
an end. The last of the Austrians fell. On that fatal field there had
met their death, at the hands of the small body of Swiss, no less than
six hundred and fifty-six knights, barons, and counts, together with
thousands of their men-at-arms.

Thus ended the battle of Sempach, with its signal victory to the Swiss,
one of the most striking which history records, if we consider the great
disproportion in numbers and in warlike experience and military
equipment of the combatants. It secured to Switzerland the liberty for
which they had so valiantly struck at Morgarten seventy years before.

But all Switzerland was not yet free, and more blows were needed to win
its full liberty. The battle of Naefels, in 1388, added to the width of
the free zone. In this the peasants of Glarus rolled stones on the
Austrian squadrons, and set fire to the bridges over which they fled,
two thousand five hundred of the enemy, including a great number of
nobles, being slain. In the same year the pe