Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/130

146 high up among the mountains, above which glanced forth the glaciers. The lower we descend, the more we come into the region of summer. We are now in the Canton Uri, the smallest and the poorest of the Swiss Cantons, and at the same time one of the foremost in the history of Swiss liberty. We drive past the rains of Gessler's castle, Zwing-Uri, where, with chains and cudgels, he endeavored to overawe the free sons of the country, and which thence derives its name. We salute Attinghausen, the castle and abode of Walter Fürst, the ruins of which are still shaded by a garland of beautiful trees.

We drive in close companionship with the Reuss, through the vale, and a more beautiful vale than this is watered by no river. It has also been bathed with blood in more than one bitter combat. The French, the Austrians, and Russians have fought with each other and the sons of the country, more than once, in this, and the vale of Urseren. Poor, little Switzerland! Long and severe has been the fight for the freedom and the peace which thou enjoyest; nowhere more severe than in the Forest Cantons, the primeval home of the Swiss people.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Burglen, the birthplace of Tell. On the place where his house is said to have stood, now stands a little wooden chapel to his memory, very finely painted and adorned with patriotic inscriptions. The walk thither, along the valley of Schächenbach, is one of the loveliest conceivable, from its affluence of beautiful trees; and the Schächenbach now flows clear and calm, as a thanksgiving hymn for the heroic deeds of old.