'A merry man was he, I wot,
The night he made the lay,
Returning from the bloody spot,
Where God had judged the day.'
On every 9th of July subsequently, the people of the country have been
wont to assemble on the battlefield, around four stone crosses
which mark the spot. A priest from a pulpit in the open air gives
a thanksgiving sermon on the victory that ensured the freedom of
Switzerland, and another reads the narrative of the battle, and the roll
of the brave 200, who, after Winkelried's example, gave their lives in
the cause. All this is in the face of the mountains and the lake now
lying in summer stillness, and the harvest fields whose crops are secure
from marauders, and the congregation then proceed to the small chapel,
the walls of which are painted with the deed of Arnold von Winkelried,
and the other distinguished achievements of the confederates, and masses
are sung for the souls of those who were slain. No wonder that men thus
nurtured in the memory of such actions were, even to the fall of the
French monarchy, among the most trustworthy soldiery of Europe.