at his command for their protection.  Thus Rhodolph of Hapsburg was chosen chief of the mountaineers of Uri, Schweitz and Underwalden; and all their trained bands were ready, when his bugle note echoed through their defiles, to follow him unquestioning, and to do his bidding.  The citizens of Zurich chose Rhodolph of Hapsburg as their prefect or mayor; and whenever his banner was unfurled in their streets, all the troops of the city were at his command.

The neighboring barons, alarmed at this rapid aggrandizement of Rhodolph, formed an alliance to crush him.  The mountaineers heard his bugle call, and rushed to his aid.  Zurich opened her gates, and her marshaled troops hastened to his banner.  From Hapsburg, and Rheinfelden, and Suabia, and Brisgau, and we know not how many other of the territorial possessions of the count, the vassals rushed to the aid of their lord.  They met in one of the valleys of Zurich.  The battle was short, and the confederated barons were put to utter flight.  Some took refuge in the strong castle of Balder, upon a rocky cliff washed by the Albis.  Rhodolph selected thirty horsemen and thirty footmen.

“Will you follow me,” said he, “in an enterprise where the honor will be equal to the peril?”

A universal shout of assent was the response.  Concealing the footmen in a thicket, he, at the head of thirty horsemen, rode boldly to the gates of the castle, bidding defiance, with all the utterances and gesticulations of contempt, to the whole garrison.  Those on the ramparts, stung by the insult, rushed out to chastise so impudent a challenge.  The footmen rose from their ambush, and assailants and assailed rushed pell mell in at the open gates of the castle.  The garrison were cut down or taken captive, and the fortress demolished.  Another party had fled to the castle of Uttleberg.  By an ingenious stratagem, this castle was also taken.  Success succeeded success with such rapidity, that the confederate barons, struck with consternation, exclaimed,

“All opposition is fruitless.  Rhodolph of Hapsburg is invincible.”

They consequently dissolved the alliance, and sought peace on terms which vastly augmented the power of the conqueror.

Basle now incurred the displeasure of Rhodolph.  He led his armies to the gates of the city, and extorted satisfaction.  The Bishop of Basle, a haughty prelate of great military power, and who could summon many barons to his aid, ventured to make arrogant demands of this warrior flushed with victory.  The palace and vast possessions of the bishop were upon the other side of the unbridged Rhine, and the bishop imagined that he could easily prevent the passage of the river.  But Rhodolph speedily constructed a bridge of boats, put to flight the troops which opposed his passage, drove the peasants of the bishop everywhere before him, and burned their cottages and their fields of grain.  The bishop, appalled, sued for a truce, that they might negotiate terms of peace.  Rhodolph consented, and encamped his followers.