Anne of Geierstein; Or, The Maiden of the Mist. Volume 1 (of 2)

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER VII.

  Let him who will not proffer'd peace receive, Be sated with the plagues which war can give; And well thy hatred of the peace is known, If now thy soul reject the friendship shown. HOOLE'S _Tasso_.

  The confidence betwixt the Landamman and the English merchant appearedto increase during the course of a few busy days, which occurredbefore that appointed for the commencement of their journey to thecourt of Charles of Burgundy. The state of Europe, and of theHelvetian Confederacy, has been already alluded to; but, for thedistinct explanation of our story, may be here briefly recapitulated.

  In the interval of a week, whilst the English travellers remained atGeierstein, meetings or diets were held, as well of the City Cantonsof the Confederacy as of those of the Forest. The former, aggrieved bythe taxes imposed on their commerce by the Duke of Burgundy, renderedyet more intolerable by the violence of the agents whom he employed insuch oppression, were eager for war, in which they had hithertouniformly found victory and wealth. Many of them were also privatelyinstigated to arms by the largesses of Louis XI., who spared neitherintrigues nor gold to effect a breach betwixt these dauntlessconfederates and his formidable enemy, Charles the Bold.

  On the other hand, there were many reasons which appeared to render itimpolitic for the Switzers to engage in war with one of the mostwealthy, most obstinate, and most powerful princes in Europe--for suchunquestionably was Charles of Burgundy--without the existence of somestrong reason affecting their own honour and independence. Every daybrought fresh intelligence from the interior that Edward the Fourth ofEngland had entered into a strict and intimate alliance, offensive anddefensive, with the Duke of Burgundy, and that it was the purpose ofthe English King, renowned for his numerous victories over the rivalHouse of Lancaster, by which, after various reverses, he had obtainedundisputed possession of the throne, to reassert his claims to thoseprovinces of France so long held by his ancestors. It seemed as ifthis alone were wanting to his fame, and that, having subdued hisinternal enemies, he now turned his eyes to the regaining of thoserich and valuable foreign possessions which had been lost during theadministration of the feeble Henry VI. and the civil discords sodreadfully prosecuted in the wars of the White and Red Roses. It wasuniversally known, that throughout England generally the loss of theFrench provinces was felt as a national degradation; and that not onlythe nobility, who had in consequence been deprived of the large fiefswhich they had held in Normandy, Gascony, Maine, and Anjou, but thewarlike gentry, accustomed to gain both fame and wealth at the expenseof France, and the fiery yeomanry, whose bows had decided so manyfatal battles, were as eager to renew the conflict, as their ancestorsof Cressy, Poitiers, and Agincourt had been to follow their sovereignto the fields of victory, on which their deeds had conferred deathlessrenown.

  The latest and most authentic intelligence bore, that the King ofEngland was on the point of passing to France in person (an invasionrendered easy by his possession of Calais), with an army superior innumbers and discipline to any with which an English monarch had everbefore entered that kingdom; that all the hostile preparations werecompleted, and that the arrival of Edward might instantly be expected;whilst the powerful co-operation of the Duke of Burgundy, and theassistance of numerous disaffected French noblemen in the provinceswhich had been so long under the English dominion, threatened afearful issue of the war to Louis XI., sagacious, wise, and powerfulas that prince unquestionably was.

  It would no doubt have been the wisest policy of Charles of Burgundy,when thus engaging in an alliance against his most formidableneighbour, and hereditary as well as personal enemy, to have avoidedall cause of quarrel with the Helvetian Confederacy, a poor but mostwarlike people, who already had been taught by repeated successes tofeel that their hardy infantry could, if necessary, engage on terms ofequality, or even of advantage, the flower of that chivalry which hadhitherto been considered as forming the strength of European battle.But the measures of Charles, whom fortune had opposed to the mostastucious and politic monarch of his time, were always dictated bypassionate feeling and impulse, rather than by a judiciousconsideration of the circumstances in which he stood. Haughty, proud,and uncompromising, though neither destitute of honour norgenerosity, he despised and hated what he termed the paltryassociations of herdsmen and shepherds, united with a few towns whichsubsisted chiefly by commerce; and instead of courting the HelvetianCantons, like his crafty enemy, or at least affording them noostensible pretence of quarrel, he omitted no opportunity of showingthe disregard and contempt in which he held their upstart consequence,and of evincing the secret longing which he entertained to takevengeance upon them for the quantity of noble blood which they hadshed, and to compensate the repeated successes they had gained overthe feudal lords, of whom he imagined himself the destined avenger.

  The Duke of Burgundy's possessions in the Alsatian territory [_f_]afforded him many opportunities for wreaking his displeasure upon theSwiss League. The little castle and town of Ferette, lying within tenor eleven miles of Bale, served as a thoroughfare to the traffic ofBerne and Soleure, the two principal towns of the confederation. Inthis place the Duke posted a governor, or seneschal, who was also anadministrator of the revenue, and seemed born on purpose to be theplague and scourge of his republican neighbours.

  Archibald von Hagenbach was a German noble, whose possessions lay inSuabia, and was universally esteemed one of the fiercest and mostlawless of that frontier nobility known by the name of Robber-knightsand Robber-counts. These dignitaries, because they held their fiefs ofthe Holy Roman Empire, claimed as complete sovereignty within theirterritories of a mile square as any reigning prince of Germany in hismore extended dominions. They levied tolls and taxes on strangers,and imprisoned, tried, and executed those who, as they alleged, hadcommitted offences within their petty domains. But especially, and infurther exercise of their seignorial privileges, they made war on eachother, and on the Free Cities of the Empire, attacking and plunderingwithout mercy the caravans, or large trains of wagons, by which theinternal commerce of Germany was carried on.

  A succession of injuries done and received by Archibald of Hagenbach,who had been one of the fiercest sticklers for this privilege of_faustrecht_, or club-law, as it may be termed, had ended in his beingobliged, though somewhat advanced in life, to leave a country wherehis tenure of existence was become extremely precarious, and to engagein the service of the Duke of Burgundy, who willingly employed him, ashe was a man of high descent and proved valour, and not the less,perhaps, that he was sure to find in a man of Hagenbach's fierce,rapacious, and haughty disposition, the unscrupulous executioner ofwhatsoever severities it might be his master's pleasure to enjoin.

  The traders of Berne and Soleure, accordingly, made loud and violentcomplaints of Hagenbach's exactions. The impositions laid oncommodities which passed through his district of La Ferette, towhatever place they might be ultimately bound, were arbitrarilyincreased, and the merchants and traders who hesitated to make instantpayment of what was demanded were exposed to imprisonment and personalpunishment. The commercial towns of Germany appealed to the Dukeagainst this iniquitous conduct on the part of the Governor of LaFerette, and requested of his Grace's goodness that he would withdrawVon Hagenbach from their neighbourhood; but the Duke treated theircomplaints with contempt. The Swiss League carried their remonstranceshigher, and required that justice should be done on the Governor of LaFerette, as having offended against the law of nations; but they wereequally unable to attract attention or obtain redress.

  At length the Diet of the Confederation determined to send the solemndeputation which has been repeatedly mentioned. One or two of theseenvoys joined with the calm and prudent Arnold Biederman, in the hopethat so solemn a measure might open the eyes of the Duke to the wickedinjustice of his representative; others among the deputies, having nosuch peaceful views, were determined, by this resolute remonstrance,to pave the way for hostilities.

  Arnold Biederma
n was an especial advocate for peace, while itspreservation was compatible with national independence, and the honourof the Confederacy; but the younger Philipson soon discovered that theLandamman alone, of all his family, cherished these moderate views.The opinion of his sons had been swayed and seduced by the impetuouseloquence and overbearing influence of Rudolph of Donnerhugel, who, bysome feats of peculiar gallantry, and the consideration due to themerit of his ancestors, had acquired an influence in the councils ofhis native canton, and with the youth of the League in general, beyondwhat was usually yielded by these wise republicans to men of his earlyage. Arthur, who was now an acceptable and welcome companion of alltheir hunting parties and other sports, heard nothing among the youngmen but anticipations of war, rendered delightful by the hopes ofbooty and of distinction, which were to be obtained by the Switzers.The feats of their ancestors against the Germans had been so wonderfulas to realise the fabulous victories of romance; and while the presentrace possessed the same hardy limbs, and the same inflexible courage,they eagerly anticipated the same distinguished success. When theGovernor of La Ferette was mentioned in the conversation, he wasusually spoken of as the bandog of Burgundy, or the Alsatian mastiff;and intimations were openly given, that if his course were notinstantly checked by his master, and he himself withdrawn from thefrontiers of Switzerland, Archibald of Hagenbach would find hisfortress no protection from the awakened indignation of the wrongedinhabitants of Soleure, and particularly of those of Berne.

  This general disposition to war among the young Switzers was reportedto the elder Philipson by his son, and led him at one time to hesitatewhether he ought not rather to resume all the inconveniences anddangers of a journey, accompanied only by Arthur, than run the risk ofthe quarrels in which he might be involved by the unruly conduct ofthese fierce mountain youths, after they should have left their ownfrontiers. Such an event would have had, in a peculiar degree, theeffect of destroying every purpose of his journey; but respected asArnold Biederman was by his family and countrymen, the Englishmerchant concluded, upon the whole, that his influence would be ableto restrain his companions until the great question of peace or warshould be determined, and especially until they should have dischargedtheir commission by obtaining an audience of the Duke of Burgundy; andafter this he should be separated from their society, and not liableto be engaged in any responsibility for their ulterior measures.

  After a delay of about ten days, the deputation commissioned toremonstrate with the Duke on the aggressions and exactions ofArchibald of Hagenbach at length assembled at Geierstein, whence themembers were to journey forth together. They were three in number,besides the young Bernese, and the Landamman of Unterwalden. One was,like Arnold, a proprietor from the Forest Cantons, wearing a dressscarcely handsomer than that of a common herdsman, but distinguishedby the beauty and size of his long silvery beard. His name wasNicholas Bonstetten. Melchior Sturmthal, banner-bearer of Berne, a manof middle age, and a soldier of distinguished courage, with AdamZimmerman, a burgess of Soleure, who was considerably older, completedthe number of the envoys.

  Each was dressed after his best fashion; but notwithstanding that thesevere eye of Arnold Biederman censured one or two silverbelt-buckles, as well as a chain of the same metal, which decoratedthe portly person of the burgess of Soleure, it seemed that a powerfuland victorious people, for such the Swiss were now to be esteemed,were never represented by an embassy of such patriarchal simplicity.The deputies travelled on foot, with their piked staves in theirhands, like pilgrims bound for some place of devotion. Two mules,which bore their little stock of baggage, were led by young lads, sonsor cousins of members of the embassy, who had obtained permission inthis manner to get such a glance of the world beyond the mountains asthis journey promised to afford.

  But although their retinue was small, so far as respected either stateor personal attendance and accommodation, the dangerous circumstancesof the times, and the very unsettled state of the country beyond theirown territories, did not permit men charged with affairs of suchimportance to travel without a guard. Even the danger arising from thewolves, which, when pinched by the approach of winter, have been knownto descend from their mountain fastnesses into open villages, such asthose the travellers might choose to quarter in, rendered the presenceof some escort necessary; and the bands of deserters from variousservices, who formed parties of banditti on the frontiers of Alsatiaand Germany, combined to recommend such a precaution.

  Accordingly, about twenty of the selected youth from the various Swisscantons, including Rudiger, Ernest, and Sigismund, Arnold's threeeldest sons, attended upon the deputation. They did not, however,observe any military order, or march close or near to the patriarchaltrain. On the contrary, they formed hunting parties of five or sixtogether, who explored the rocks, woods, and passes of the mountains,through which the envoys journeyed. Their slower pace allowed theactive young men, who were accompanied by their large shaggy dogs,full time to destroy wolves and bears, or occasionally to surprise achamois among the cliffs; while the hunters, even while in pursuit oftheir sport, were careful to examine such places as might affordopportunity for ambush, and thus ascertained the safety of the partywhom they escorted, more securely than if they had attended close ontheir train. A peculiar note on the huge Swiss bugle, beforedescribed, formed of the horn of the mountain bull, was the signalagreed upon for collecting in a body should danger occur. RudolphDonnerhugel, so much younger than his brethren in the same importantcommission, took the command of this mountain body-guard, whom heusually accompanied in their sportive excursions. In point of arms,they were well provided; bearing two-handed swords, long partisans andspears, as well as both cross and long bows, short cutlasses, andhuntsmen's knives. The heavier weapons, as impeding their activity,were carried with the baggage, but were ready to be assumed on theslightest alarm.

  Arthur Philipson, like his late antagonist, naturally preferred thecompany and sports of the younger men to the grave conversation andslow pace of the fathers of the mountain commonwealth. There was,however, one temptation to loiter with the baggage, which, had othercircumstances permitted, might have reconciled the young Englishman toforego the opportunities of sport which the Swiss youth so eagerlysought after, and endure the slow pace and grave conversation of theelders of the party. In a word, Anne of Geierstein, accompanied by aSwiss girl her attendant, travelled in the rear of the deputation.

  The two females were mounted upon asses, whose slow step hardly keptpace with the baggage mules; and it may be fairly suspected thatArthur Philipson, in requital of the important services which he hadreceived from that beautiful and interesting young woman, would havedeemed it no extreme hardship to have afforded her occasionally hisassistance on the journey, and the advantage of his conversation torelieve the tediousness of the way. But he dared not presume to offerattentions which the customs of the country did not seem to permit,since they were not attempted by any of the maiden's cousins, or evenby Rudolph Donnerhugel, who certainly had hitherto appeared to neglectno opportunity to recommend himself to his fair cousin. Besides,Arthur had reflection enough to be convinced, that in yielding to thefeelings which impelled him to cultivate the acquaintance of thisamiable young person, he would certainly incur the serious displeasureof his father, and probably also that of her uncle, by whosehospitality they had profited, and whose safe-conduct they were in theact of enjoying.

  The young Englishman, therefore, pursued the same amusements whichinterested the other young men of the party, managing only, asfrequently as their halts permitted, to venture upon offering to themaiden such marks of courtesy as could afford no room for remark orcensure. And his character as a sportsman being now well established,he sometimes permitted himself, even when the game was afoot, toloiter in the vicinity of the path on which he could at least mark theflutter of the grey wimple of Anne of Geierstein, and the outline ofthe form which it shrouded. This indolence, as it seemed, was notunfavourably construed by his companions, being only accounted anindifferen
ce to the less noble or less dangerous game; for when theobject was a bear, wolf, or other animal of prey, no spear, cutlass,or bow of the party, not even those of Rudolph Donnerhugel, were soprompt in the chase as those of the young Englishman.

  Meantime, the elder Philipson had other and more serious subjects ofconsideration. He was a man, as the reader must have already seen, ofmuch acquaintance with the world, in which he had acted partsdifferent from that which he now sustained. Former feelings wererecalled and awakened, by the view of sports familiar to his earlyyears. The clamour of the hounds, echoing from the wild hills and darkforests through which they travelled; the sight of the gallant younghuntsmen, appearing, as they brought the object of their chase to bay,amid airy cliffs and profound precipices, which seemed impervious tothe human foot; the sounds of halloo and horn reverberating from hillto hill, had more than once well-nigh impelled him to take a share inthe hazardous but animating amusement, which, next to war, was then inmost parts of Europe the most serious occupation of life. But thefeeling was transient, and he became yet more deeply interested instudying the manners and opinions of the persons with whom he wastravelling.

  They seemed to be all coloured with the same downright and bluntsimplicity which characterised Arnold Biederman, although it was innone of them elevated by the same dignity of thought or profoundsagacity. In speaking of the political state of their country, theyaffected no secrecy; and although, with the exception of Rudolph,their own young men were not admitted into their councils, theexclusion seemed only adopted with a view to the necessarysubordination of youth to age, and not for the purpose of observingany mystery. In the presence of the elder Philipson, they freelydiscussed the pretensions of the Duke of Burgundy, the means whichtheir country possessed of maintaining her independence, and the firmresolution of the Helvetian League to bid defiance to the utmost forcethe world could bring against it, rather than submit to the slightestinsult. In other respects, their views appeared wise and moderate,although both the Banneret of Berne and the consequential Burgher ofSoleure seemed to hold the consequences of war more lightly than theywere viewed by the cautious Landamman of Unterwalden, and hisvenerable companion, Nicholas Bonstetten, who subscribed to all hisopinions.

  It frequently happened that, quitting these subjects, the conversationturned on such as were less attractive to their fellow-traveller. Thesigns of the weather, the comparative fertility of recent seasons, themost advantageous mode of managing their orchards and rearing theircrops, though interesting to the mountaineers themselves, gavePhilipson slender amusement; and notwithstanding that the excellentMeinherr Zimmerman of Soleure would fain have joined with him inconversation respecting trade and merchandise, yet the Englishman, whodealt in articles of small bulk and considerable value, and traversedsea and land to carry on his traffic, could find few mutual topics todiscuss with the Swiss trader, whose commerce only extended into theneighbouring districts of Burgundy and Germany, and whose goodsconsisted of coarse woollen cloths, fustian, hides, peltry, and suchordinary articles.

  But ever and anon, while the Switzers were discussing some paltryinterests of trade, or describing some process of rude cultivation, orspeaking of blights in grain, and the murrain amongst cattle, with allthe dull minuteness of petty farmers and traders met at a countryfair, a well-known spot would recall the name and story of a battle inwhich some of them had served (for there were none of the party whohad not been repeatedly in arms), and the military details, which inother countries were only the theme of knights and squires who hadacted their part in them, or of learned clerks who laboured to recordthem, were, in this singular region, the familiar and intimatesubjects of discussion with men whose peaceful occupations seemed toplace them at an immeasurable distance from the profession of asoldier. This led the Englishman to think of the ancient inhabitantsof Rome, where the plough was so readily exchanged for the sword, andthe cultivation of a rude farm for the management of public affairs.He hinted this resemblance to the Landamman, who was naturallygratified with the compliment to his country, but presentlyreplied--"May Heaven continue among us the homebred virtues of theRomans, and preserve us from their lust of conquest and love offoreign luxuries!"

  The slow pace of the travellers, with various causes of delay which itis unnecessary to dwell upon, occasioned the deputation spending twonights on the road before they reached Bale. The small towns orvillages in which they quartered, received them with such marks ofrespectful hospitality as they had the means to bestow, and theirarrival was a signal for a little feast, with which the heads of thecommunity uniformly regaled them.

  On such occasions, while the elders of the village entertained thedeputies of the Confederation, the young men of the escort wereprovided for by those of their own age, several of whom, usually awareof their approach, were accustomed to join in the chase of the day,and made the strangers acquainted with the spots where game was mostplenty.

  These feasts were never prolonged to excess, and the most specialdainties which composed them were kids, lambs, and game, the produceof the mountains. Yet it seemed, both to Arthur Philipson and hisfather, that the advantages of good cheer were more prized by theBanneret of Berne and the Burgess of Soleure than by their host theLandamman and the Deputy of Schwitz. There was no excess committed, aswe have already said; but the deputies first mentioned obviouslyunderstood the art of selecting the choicest morsels, and wereconnoisseurs in the good wine, chiefly of foreign growth, with whichthey freely washed it down. Arnold was too wise to censure what he hadno means of amending: he contented himself by observing in his ownperson a rigorous diet, living indeed almost entirely upon vegetablesand fair water, in which he was closely imitated by the oldgrey-bearded Nicholas Bonstetten, who seemed to make it his principalobject to follow the Landamman's example in everything.

  It was, as we have already said, the third day after the commencementof their journey, before the Swiss deputation reached the vicinity ofBale, in which city, then one of the largest in the south-westernextremity of Germany, they proposed taking up their abode for theevening, nothing doubting a friendly reception. The town, it is true,was not then, nor till about thirty years afterwards, a part of theSwiss Confederation, to which it was only joined in 1501; but it was aFree Imperial City, connected with Berne, Soleure, Lucerne, and othertowns of Switzerland by mutual interests and constant intercourse. Itwas the object of the deputation to negotiate, if possible, a peace,which could not be more useful to themselves than to the city of Bale,considering the interruptions of commerce which must be occasioned bya rupture between the Duke of Burgundy and the Cantons, and the greatadvantage which that city would derive by preserving a neutrality,situated as it was betwixt these two hostile powers.

  They anticipated, therefore, as welcome a reception from theauthorities of Bale as they had received while in the bounds of theirown Confederation, since the interests of that city were so deeplyconcerned in the objects of their mission. The next chapter will showhow far these expectations were realised.