These
thirty-three good and true men, thus assembled at the midnight hour in
the meadow of Ruetli, united in a solemn oath that they would devote
their lives and strength to the freeing of their country from its
oppressors. They fixed the first day of the coming year for the
beginning of their work, and then returned to their homes, where they
kept the strictest secrecy, occupying themselves in housing their cattle
for the winter and in other rural labors, with no indication that they
cherished deeper designs.
During this interval of secrecy another event, of a nature highly
exasperating to the Swiss, is said to have happened. It is true that
modern critics declare the story of this event to be solely a legend and
that nothing of the kind ever took place. However that be, it has ever
since remained one of the most attractive of popular tales, and the
verdict of the critics shall not deter us from telling again this
oft-repeated and always welcome story.
We have named two of the many tyrannical governors of Switzerland, the
deputies there of Albert of Austria, then Emperor of Germany, whose
purpose was to abolish the privileges of the Swiss and subject the free
communes to his arbitrary rule.
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