, and brought
them an independent existence and a name; but it left them at its close
the mere skeleton of a political body, and it was not until a later day
that their national constitution received fulness and development--it
was not until the fifteenth century that the people acquired a clearly
distinct character and position among the countries of Europe.

Several of the most celebrated battles in Swiss history, those which
gave the confederates military fame with other nations, belong to this
period. The battle of St. Jacques is altogether one of the most
extraordinary on record. Thirty thousand French troops, chiefly from the
free company of Armagnac, commanded by the Dauphin, afterwards Louis
XI., marched to the defence of Zurich, which had revolted against the
confederacy. They arrived at Basle in August, 1444. Fifteen hundred
Swiss, from the cantons of Berne, Lucerne, Soleure and Basle, were
dispatched to meet them. They found several thousand of the enemy in
advance. These they attacked, repulsed, and pursued to the river Birs,
and then, dashing into the stream after the flying enemy, and in face of
a heavy cannonade, they actually assaulted the whole army of France in
their camp on the opposite shore. The daring corps were soon divided,
but they fought like lions. Five hundred were in an open meadow, exposed
on all sides to the enemy; the remaining nine hundred threw themselves
behind a garden wall. These last repulsed the enemy there several times,
and made two attacks in their turn. Hundreds and thousands of the
Armagnacs fell--man by man the brave Swiss were struck down. The battle
lasted ten hours before the whole corps of Swiss had fallen, for then
only could the enemy pause. Fourteen hundred and ninety of the
confederates were numbered with the dead, ten men only escaping by
flight. Thousands upon thousands of the French army lay piled about the
dead Swiss. This defeat, if such a name be fitted to the battle of St.
Jacques, produced all the results of a victory: the siege of Basle was
abandoned, a peace was speedily concluded, and it was in consequence of
this brilliant action that Louis XI., when he ascended his father's
throne, concluded with the Swiss that close alliance which has lasted
nearly to the present times.

It was in the fifteenth century also that Charles of Burgundy attacked
the confederates with all the forces of one of the richest and most
powerful princes of the age. On the third of M