“320 the traveller. No. tv. Dec. 26, 
certainly break, and often prove destructive to! the 
person who tried. to overstrain it. 
In the fourteenth century, when this part of 
Switzerland was an apanage of the counts of Harp- 
dburg, then become emperors of Germany, these 
distant provinces were put under the government 
of subordinate delegates, called daz/lies, who exerci- 
-sed their power with the most despotic authority. 
~The people made remonstrances to the emperor.; 
-but in vain. The baillies, irritated by {these re- 
“monstrances, and.confident of being supported by 
“the court, became more insolent and opprefsive than 
before. Among these Gesler, baillie of Schweitz, 
a man of ferocious manners, and rapacious disposi- 
tion, rendered himself singularly obnoxious by the 
extravagance of his opprefsions. Among other acts 
of despotism; he planted a pike in the middle of 
the market place of the village, (for it was then no 
more,) of Altorff, where I now sit; upon the top 
of which he placed his bonnet; and, like Nebuchad- 
nezzar of old, he commanded that all persons whe 
-pafsed it, thould fall. down and worthip it. This 
degree of insolence, in a man lately raised to pow- 
er, among a people who had been accustomed to 
enjoy a great degree of freedom, excited the high- 
est indignation. Three men of the provinces of 
Schweitz, Underwald, and Ury, who had received, 
each, personal indignities from the overbearing 
~Gesler, resolved to exert every effort in their pow- 
er to free themselves and countrymen from this 
intolerable thraldom, Their names are here re- 
-peated by every child as soon as itcan lisp. They were 
