Appenzell opens the series of _Zugewandte_, or "connections." The shepherds and peasants scattered around the foot of Mount Säntis, oppressed by the abbots of St. Gall, began a rising that partook of a revolutionary character. A succession of heroic feats followed--the battle of Vogelinseck in 1403, that of Am Stoss in 1405, and others[34]--and the prelate and his ally, Frederick IV. of Austria ("Empty Pocket"), were completely defeated. Somewhat curiously we find Graf Rudolf von Werdenberg throwing in his lot with that of the humble peasants, and stooping to the humiliating terms they insisted upon. He had been robbed of his lands by the Habsburgs, and hoped to recover them by the help of the Alpestrians, and actually did so. But the peasantry were somewhat diffident concerning him, and would not entrust him with command. So the noble knight of St. George put aside his fine armour and his magnificent horse, and donned the peasant's garb to be admitted into their ranks. Elated by their succession of triumphs the hardy Appenzeller rushed on to new victories. Bursting their bounds, like an impetuous mountain torrent, they spread into neighbouring lands, and even penetrated to the distant Tyrol. Serf and bondsman hailed them as deliverers, and whole towns and valleys along the Upper Rhine and the Inn came into alliance with them--_Bund ob dem See_, above Lake Constance--that was to be a safeguard in the East. At last the Swabian knighthood plucked up courage enough to oppose this mountain hurricane. At the siege of Bregenz in 1407, they were, through carelessness, put to flight. The Bund collapsed, and its prestige departed, but the men had secured their object, viz., independence from control by the Abbey of St. Gall. By and by they bought off some of the taxes, and they met at their Landsgemeinde to consult respecting the weal of their country. Down to our own days this institution remains famous. Their application in 1411 for admission into the league was granted, but quite conditionally. Bern kept aloof from them, and Zurich found it necessary to checkmate their revolutionary tendencies, and they were received as _Zugewandte_, or allies of second rank. It was not till 1513 that the new-comer rose to the position of full member of the league. St. Gall, too, became "a connection"--and no more--in 1412.