The Catholic World, Vol. 22, October, 1875, to March, 1876: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and ScienceVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 22, October, 1875, to March, 1876: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
three miles further inland. Accordingly, after ordering dinner to be
ready on our return at a hotel which was filled with Tell pictures, and
an excellent one of the festival at the Platform, we left the town and
proceeded up the valley. Soon we crossed a stream, the same, Herr H----
told us, in which Tell is said to have been drowned while endeavoring to
save a child who had fallen into it. He also pointed out to us Bürglen,
his home, and an old tower believed to have been his house, attached to
which there is now a small ivy-clad chapel. It stands at the opening
of the Schächen valley, celebrated to this day for its fine race of
men--likewise corresponding in this respect with the old tradition.
But more modern interest attaches to this valley, for it was along its
craggy sides and precipices that Suwarow’s army made its way across the
Kinzig-Kulm to the Muotta. The whole of this region was the scene of
fearful fighting--first between the French and the Austrians, who were
assisted by the natives of Uri, in 1799, and then, a month later, between
the Russians coming up from Lombardy and the French.
“That was the age of real fighting,” said Herr H----, “hand-to-hand
fighting, without _mitrailleuses_ or long ranges. But the misery it
brought this quarter was not recovered from for years after. Altorf
was burnt down at that time, and everything laid waste. The memory of
the trouble lingers about here even yet. What wonder! Certainly, in
all Europe no more difficult fighting ground could have been found. In
the end, the French General Lecourbe was all but cut off, for he had
destroyed every boat on the lake; in those days a most serious matter,
as neither steamers nor Axenstrasse existed. When he therefore wished to
pursue the Russians, who by going up this Schächen valley intended to
join their own corps, supposed to be at Zürich, he too was obliged to
make a bold manœuvre. And then it was that he led his army by torchlight
along the dangerous mule-path on the Axenberg! Sad and dreadful times
they were for these poor cantons.”
Herr H---- showed us Attinghausen, the birth-place of Walter Fürst, and
the ruins of a castle near, which is the locality of a fine scene in
Schiller, but the last owner of which died in 1357, and is known to have
been buried in his helmet and spurs. Shortly after, about three miles
from Altorf, we reached the noted field, and George, opening Freeman,
read us the following passage aloud:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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