On the main-land only two little spots, at the two extremities
of the old Teutonic world, had fared equally well. At the mouth of the
Rhine the little Dutch communities were prepared to lead the attack in
the terrible battle for freedom with which the drama of modern history
was ushered in. In the impregnable mountain fastnesses of upper Germany
the Swiss cantons had bid defiance alike to Austrian tyrant and to
Burgundian invader, and had preserved in its purest form the rustic
democracy of their Aryan forefathers. By a curious coincidence, both
these free peoples, in their efforts towards national unity, were led to
frame federal unions, and one of these political achievements is, from
the stand-point of universal history, of very great significance. The
old League of High Germany, which earned immortal renown at Morgarten
and Sempach, consisted of German-speaking cantons only. But in the
fifteenth century the League won by force of arms a small bit of Italian
territory about Lake Lugano, and in the sixteenth the powerful city of
Bern annexed the Burgundian bishopric of Lausanne and rescued the free
city of Geneva from the clutches of the Duke of Savoy. Other Burgundian
possessions of Savoy were seized by the canton of Freiburg; and after
awhile all these subjects and allies were admitted on equal terms into
the confederation.
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