Page:Hemans in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 12 1823.pdf/3

 main army in two columns towards Zug. A numerous body of heavy cavalry, which, although the cumbersome weight of their armour was ill adapted for the services here required of them, was yet considered the flower of the Austrian army, led the van.

Some days before the battle of Morgarten, fifty men, who, having rendered themselves obnoxious to the magistracy, had been banished from the Canton of Schwitz, came to the frontiers, and requested that they might be allowed to join the Swiss confederates posted on Mount Sattel, in the defence of their country. The magistrates, deeming it unwise to deviate from an established rule, refused to admit the exiles within their confines. Thus rejected, they nevertheless resolved to expose their lives for their country, and posted themselves on the eminence above Morgarten, beyond the frontiers of the Canton.