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LEFT SWINTON 197 SWITHIN Civil War he was war correspondent of the New York "Times"; from 1869 to 1872 he was Professor of English Lan- guage and Literature in the University of California. His writings include: "Rambles Among Words"; "Twelve De- cisive Battles of the War"; "Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac"; "Word Analysis"; "Studies in English Litera- ture"; and "Outlines of the World's His- tory." He died in New York City Oct. 25, 1892. SWISS GUARDS, a celebrated corps or regiment of Swiss mercenaries in the French army of the old regime, consti- tuted as "Gardes" by royal decree in 1616. They were ever unswerving in their fidelity to the Bourbon kings, and their courage never blazed more brightly than on the steps of the Tuileries Aug. 10, 1792. They had been ordered to leave Paris by a decree of the Assembly on July 17, but had not yet been sent further than their barracks, when on Aug. 8, in anticipation of insurrection, they were ordered to march to the Tuileries. Mich- elet gives their number as 1,330; Louis Blanc as 950. But the number may now be taken definitely as nearly 800, in- cluding the ordinary guard of the king. In anticipation of a storm Mandat had made admirable arrangements to defend the palace, but the National Guards fra- ternized with the insurgents, and Mandat was murdered on the steps of the Hotel de Ville. Meanwhile a growing mob un- der Santerre, with the famous 500 men of Marseilles at their head, marched on the Tuileries. But before they reached the palace Roederer had persuaded the king to leave the Tuileries and place himself under the protection of the Na- tional Assembly. He was accompanied thither by 150 Swiss, besides 200 eentle- men and about 100 National Guards. The remainder were left without orders, uncertain what to do, and when Wester- mann with his Marseilles and a raging mob made their way through the gates of the Tuileries and across the court the 650 Swiss under Captain Durler faced them on the great staircase. Westermann, an Alsatian, tried to win them over by speaking to them in German. Some one fired a shot and the struggle began. The Swiss had already driven back Wester- mann with about 100 dead, when the king hearing the firing sent them orders to leave the palace. They fought their re- treat across the gardens, while the mob swarmed into the palace and murdered a few wounded men they found there. Those under Durler made their way to the Assembly, were disarmed and placed in the neighboring church of the Feuil- lants; but those who were posted in the corridors and rooms of the palace did not hear the order to retreat, and were speedily attacked and hunted to death. A few fought their way out to the Place Louis XV., where they formed a square under the statue of the king, and were cut to pieces where they stood. Few but those who found refuge in the church of the Feuillants survived that fatal day. Fifty-four were sent to the Abbaye and were among the first to perish in the atro- cious September massacres. The heroism of the Swiss Guards was fittingly com- memorated in 1821 by the great lion out- side one of the gates of Lucerne, cut out of the rock after a model by Thorwaldsen. SWITCHBACK, a term applied to a zigzagging, alternate back and forward mode of progression up a slope. A "switchback" railway originally meant one where the ascent is up a steep incline simplified by curving the track back- wards and forward (and upward) on the face of the slope. Afterward the term came to be applied to a railway where (as at Mauch Chunk, Pa.) the movement of the cars is largely effected by their own weight alone, the descents by gravity and the ascents by a station- ary engine. Hence the application to the well-known apparatus for amusing the public at watering places, fairs, and exhibitions: a short length of elevated railway with a series of rounded inclines, so that the car gains enough momentum descending the first steep incline to as- cend one or more smaller inclines till it gradually and more slowly works it v/ay to the original level at the far end of the course. Thence it returns in the same way. Sometimes these switchbacks are made circular, called "Russian Moun- tains." They were introduced into Paris as a popular amusement about 1815. The latest forms of this kind of amuse- ment in the United States are known as the "toboggan," the "steeple-chase" and "loop-the-loop." SWITHIN, or SWITHUN, St., Bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862. He was tutor to Egbert's son, Ethelwulf, under whom he was made bishop. He was a devoted builder of churches and a man of unusual piety and humility. He built a bridge at the E. side of the city. He died in 862 and was buried in the churchyard of Winchester. A century later he was canonized, and the monks exhumed his body to deposit it in the cathedral. Although the account can- not be found in contemporary chroni- clers, the transference of the body is supposed to have taken place on July 15, and to have been delayed by violent rains. Hence the still current belief that if rain falls on