5.  And now the work of life and death
   Hung on the passing of a breath;
   The fire of conflict burned within;
   The battle trembled to begin;
   Yet, while the Austrians held their ground,
   Point for attack was nowhere found;
   Where’er the impatient Switzers gazed,
   The unbroken line of lances blazed;
   That line ’t were suicide to meet,
   And perish at their tyrants’ feet;
   How could they rest within their graves,
   And leave their homes the home of slaves? 
   Would they not feel their children tread
   With clanking chains above their head?

6.  It must not be:  this day, this hour,
   Annihilates the oppressor’s power
   All Switzerland is in the field,
   She will not fly, she can not yield;
   Few were the numbers she could boast,
   But every freeman was a host,
   And felt as though himself were he
   On whose sole arm hung victory.

7.  It did depend on one, indeed: 
   Behold him!  Arnold Winkelried! 
   There sounds not to the trump of fame
   The echo of a nobler name. 
   Unmarked he stood amid the throng,
   In rumination deep and long,
   Till you might see with sudden grace,
   The very thought come o’er his face;
   And by the motion of his form: 
   Anticipate the bursting storm;
   And by the uplifting of his brow,
   Tell where the bolt would strike, and how. 
   But ’t was no sooner thought than done;
   The field was in a moment won.

8.  “Make way for Liberty!” he cried: 
   Then ran, with arms extended wide,
   As if his dearest friend to clasp;
   Ten spears he swept within his grasp: 
   “Make way for Liberty!” he cried,
   Their keen points met from side to side;
   He bowed among them like a tree,
   And thus made way for Liberty.

9.  Swift to the breach his comrades fly;
   “Make way for Liberty!” they cry,
   And through the Austrian phalanx dart,
   As rushed the spears through Arnold’s heart;
   While instantaneous as his fall,
   Rout, ruin, panic, scattered all. 
   An earthquake could not overthrow
   A city with a surer blow.

10.  Thus Switzerland again was free,
    Thus Death made way for Liberty!

Definitions.—­2.  Pha’lanx, a body of troops formed in close array.  Con’scious, sensible, knowing.  Kin’dred, those of like nature, relatives.  Ram’part, that which defends from assault, a bulwark. 3.  Im-preg’na-ble, that can not be moved or shaken.  Hor’rent, standing out like bristles. 4.  In-sur’gent, rising in opposition to authority. 13.  An-ni’hi-lates, destroys. 7.  Ru-mi-na’tion, the act of musing, meditation. 9.  Breach, a gap or opening made by breaking.

Notes.—­The incident related in this poem is one of actual occurrence, and took place at the battle of Sempach, fought in 1386 A.D., between only 1,300 Swiss and a large army of Austrians.  The latter had obtained possession of a narrow pass in the mountains, from which it seemed impossible to dislodge them until Arnold von Winkelried made a breach in their line, as narrated.