WAR AND THE BATTLE OF GINGINS.
(11TH AND 12TH OCTOBER 1535.)
[Sidenote: THE SECRET MARCH.]
What road should this little army take? There seemed to be no other than
that through the Pays de Vaud. But that country was occupied by the
captains of the duke of Savoy, who separated Wildermuth's band from
Geneva, and could easily oppose him with four or five thousand men.
Besides, if the Swiss auxiliaries followed that road, they would have to
pass near Yverdun and other strong towns capable of stopping them. 'I
undertake,' Wildermuth had said, 'to lead my companions secretly and
promptly to Geneva.' But how could he lead four to five hundred men
secretly? With that intent he had formed a bold strange plan, by means
of which he hoped to clear the distance between Neuchâtel and Geneva,
without its being known what he was doing, and would present himself to
the Genevese in distress, and to the Savoyards, their enemies, at a
moment when neither of them expected him. The old captain intended to
turn the Jura, and for that purpose to cross the Val de Travers, enter
Franche Comté, make for Sainte Claude, and thence, by the pass of the
Faucille, he would descend directly upon Geneva.
His troops began their march: they passed through Couvet, Môtiers, and
other villages in the valley; but they had hardly crossed the last
meadows, when they found the mountainous and steep roads, which
separated them from Les Verrières and Pontarlier, entirely closed by the
Savoyards.[634] Wildermuth, after taking counsel with the other chiefs,
resolved, instead of turning the Jura, to march by the upper valleys.
Some objected the season, the precipices, the absence of beaten roads;
but the leaders saw no other means of escaping the armed corps which
desired to stop them. The troop was so small that, if it fought two or
three battles before reaching Geneva, scarcely a handful of men would
enter the beleaguered city.
[Sidenote: LABORIOUS MARCH.]
Turning, therefore, to the left, in a southerly direction, and passing
the village of Butte, the volunteers painfully climbed the steep path
which, winding between Mont Chasseron and the Côte-aux-Fées, leads to
Sainte-Croix. They passed through this village, descended towards
Vallorbe, and then climbed again into the high valleys of Joux.
These heroic adventurers were two days (Friday and Saturday) on those
cold and desert heights. Everything was already covered with snow, which
was knee-deep, and forced them to clear the way with unheard-of labor.
We must not forget that there were women among them. It was the coldest
period of the year, says Froment, the winter being early and severe.
Thick flakes of snow fell and covered those brave men with a white
mantle, and obliged them to move slowly. But Wildermuth, notwithstanding
his age; Baillod, notwithstanding his small stature; and Savoye,
notwithstanding his fatigues, were fearless. One of them always marched
in front; and when they had to encounter difficult passages, they sprang
forward with fiery ardor upon those icy bulwarks, as if mounting to the
assault.
At that time there were only twenty families in the valley, and some
monks of the order of the Premonstrants, who had been settled in the
twelfth century at a place still called _the Abbey_. At the approach of
this unexpected body of 'men in white,' the inhabitants of the heights
fled in terror, with such valuables as they could carry; and those noble
champions of independence and the Gospel could find nowhere either men
or provisions, so that famine 'pressed them sorely.' They went into the
poor gardens, but could gather nothing to appease their hunger except 'a
few cabbage stalks and some turnips—and very little of these,' adds the
chronicler. However, they did not lose courage: they were going to help
Geneva, and every step carried them nearer. This idea stimulated them:
the drifted snows, which often blocked up the road, were crossed with
renewed courage.
On Saturday afternoon these warriors reached the wild lake of Les
Rousses, where they turned to the left, to make for the valley of the
Leman, marching slowly beneath long ranges of pine-trees. At length the
troop, overwhelmed with fatigue, arrived at Saint Cergues, on the
heights of the Jura overlooking Nyon, 2,800 feet above the lake. The
valiant men conducted by Wildermuth expected to find provisions in this
village; but there were no inhabitants, and no victuals. However, as
there were houses and beds too, the chiefs determined to pass the night
there, and posted sentinels all round.[635]
What were they to do next day? They might, indeed, continue their
painful road over the mountain as far as La Faucille, whence they could
descend by way of Gex to Geneva: this, as it appeared, was Claude
Savoye's first plan; but most of his comrades, pressed by hunger,
fatigued by the snow and the difficult roads of the Jura, proposed to
descend at once into the beautiful valley of the Leman. It was useless
to represent to them that they would infallibly fall in with the ducal
troops near Nyon; they answered that they had been two days without
eating; how could an army, weakened by starvation, deliver Geneva?
Nothing was decided, when the advanced sentinels brought in three young
men whom they had taken near the village. Wildermuth and the other
chiefs questioned them: they were the first human beings who had
approached them since they had plunged into the Jura. 'We have been sent
by the people of Geneva,' said one of the three, 'to serve you as
guides. The ducal troops are assembled not far from the mountain, to the
number of four to five thousand, horse and foot, and are preparing to
surround you, take you prisoners, and hang you.[636] Follow us, and we
will lead you to Geneva safe and sound.' Claude Savoye did not know
these men, which was not a good augury; but Wildermuth and his followers
had those upright hearts which do not easily suspect treachery in
others. Too happy to find guides, they resolved to follow the young men
next morning. It was night, and the troop prepared to take the necessary
repose.
There was, however, one man in that valiant band who was not to rest.
The _Genevan_, as he is generally called in this narrative, believing
that the destiny of his country was about to be decided, could not
sleep. Just at that moment a native of the district presented himself
mysteriously at the outposts and desired to see him. Savoye at once went
to speak with him. The messenger told him that he had come from the
Seigneur d'Allinges, one of the noblemen then collected round
Monseigneur de Lullin, governor of Vaud. D'Allinges had quitted the
castle of his family, situated on a steep hill near Thonon, whose
beautiful ruins are still the admiration of travellers, and had joined
the Savoyard gentlemen. Being a personal friend of Savoye's, he sent to
tell him that Louis de Diesbach and Rodolph Nägueli, the envoys of
Berne, had arrived at the castle of Coppet, in order to act as mediators
in the affair. This news troubled Savoye; did Bernese diplomacy wish to
neutralize his exertions? He might have waited until the morning, but
his character always carried him forward. He determined to depart alone,
and instantly. D'Allinges had sent him a paper signed with his own hand,
which was to serve as a safe-conduct. After conferring with Wildermuth,
Savoye quitted Saint Cergues at the moment when the others were about to
seek the repose of night. He descended the mountain hastily, though not
without difficulty; and, crossing rocks and penetrating thickets, he
reached the foot of the Jura at last. He found there a fine Spanish
courser, which D'Allinges had sent for him. Savoye sprang into the
saddle, and galloped off to Coppet.[637]
[Sidenote: SAVOYE GOES TO COPPET.]
On the other hand, the Swiss who had slept at Saint Cergues lost no
time. Stirring early on the Sunday morning, they departed under the
conduct of the three young guides. Geneva was in imminent danger; it was
necessary to hasten to its assistance. The band passed near the castle,
whence on a sudden a world sparkling with beauty opens before the eyes
of those who have been long shut up in the gorges of the Jura: the lake,
its rich valley peopled with smiling villages; the magnificent Alps, in
the bosom of which Mont Blanc uplifts his kingly head; Geneva, and the
towers of its antique cathedral. Delighted to perceive the city to whose
succor they were hastening, these generous men hailed it with joy. They
descended and marched to within a league of Nyon, at Gingins, whose
castle was then occupied by the Seigneur de Gingins, brother to the
vicar-general of Geneva. Wildermuth's followers, tired and hungry, hoped
(according to what their guides had said) to find there in abundance the
provisions of which they stood so much in need.
Behind a coppice between the village and the mountain was a ravine, worn
by the waters which descend from the hills during the heavy rains; it
would scarcely hold two persons abreast, a streamlet flowed along the
bottom, and thick underwood bordered it on both sides. The guides of
these valiant men said that they must be careful not to go near the
village, for fear the enemy should hear of their arrival, and desired
them to hide in the ravine and wait until their return. 'We will run to
Gingins,' they said, 'and bring you back refreshments; and then we will
all set out for Geneva.' 'Go,' said the troop; 'we will pay fairly for
all you can bring us.' The Swiss drew up noiselessly in the hollow way,
and their guides quitted them.
[Sidenote: BATTLE OF GINGINS.]
At Gingins there was a body of the enemy composed of Italians,
Savoyards, and gentlemen and men-at-arms of the bailiwicks of Nyon, La
Côte, Gex, La Sarraz, and other localities. The priests had preached a
crusade in those parishes.[638] They had done more: they had armed
themselves[639] and marched at the head of their villages, saying that
they would not lay down their arms until heresy was extirpated from the
valley of the Leman. They were all waiting for the Swiss, impatient to
fall upon that little band of four to five hundred ill-armed soldiers,
which they had seen descending the mountain. The duke of Savoy,
according to the official report, had on foot to stop them three to four
thousand men. Froment, who often exaggerates numbers, speaks of four to
five thousand, and reckons Spaniards among them. This force was divided
into corps, one of which was then at Gingins.
This first division, composed of fifteen hundred men, was commanded by
the Sieur de Lugrin, chief of the Gex contingent, and an Italian,
according to a chronicler. Devoted to the Romish Church and to his
master the duke, Lugrin detested Geneva and the Reform. Towards him the
three guides had made their way; and, being received into the castle,
they informed him of the results of the stratagem to which they had had
recourse, and told him that the Swiss were shut up in a narrow place,
where it would be impossible for them to move, and where it would be
easy to kill them all. Lugrin immediately marched out at the head of his
men, confident of crushing at the first blow these adventurers,
exhausted by hunger and fatigue, and of staining with heretics' blood
that deep mountain ravine.
The Swiss volunteers were waiting, without suspicion and in silence, for
the provisions that had been promised them. Presently they fancied they
heard a noise: Captain Erhard and one or two others raised their heads.
Great was their surprise when, instead of the three pretended friends
bringing them food, they saw a numerous and well-armed body of cavalry
and infantry advancing and preparing a very different sort of banquet
for them. Wildermuth without hesitation issued from the ravine; at the
same time the Sieur de Lugrin came forward, and the two chiefs, each
accompanied by an officer, met between the two forces. 'What is your
intention?' asked Lugrin.—'To go to Geneva,' answered Wildermuth.—'We
will not grant you the passage.'—'Very well; then we will take it.' At
this the officer who attended Lugrin dealt Wildermuth a blow with the
butt-end of his arquebuse and knocked him down. But the Neuchâtelan who
was with him struck the Savoyard back again and killed him.[640]
Wildermuth sprang up immediately, and ran eagerly towards his followers
to give them orders to charge.
The soldiers who composed the troop of the duke of Savoy were brave men,
burning with enthusiasm for the cause of Rome. They occupied a hill
situated between the ravine and the castle; they were set in motion,
and, on coming within gunshot, discharged their muskets; but as the
Swiss were still in the ravine, the bullets passed over their heads.
'Forward!' cried Wildermuth at this moment. In an instant his followers,
exasperated at being fooled and betrayed, issued from the hollow way,
rushed through the hedge, drew up boldly in presence of the enemy, and
fired a volley which brought several to the ground. Excited by rage and
hunger, the valiant Switzers did not give themselves time to reload
their arms, but rushed impetuously upon the Savoyards. They were like
bears or wolves whom hunger drives from the mountains, to seek food in
the plain. Those who had swords fought with them; those who had muskets
used them as clubs; it was a struggle man to man, and the conflict was
frightful. In the very middle of the fight was the heroine of Nidau,
with her husband and three sons, 'all fervent in the Gospel.' Wielding
her two-handed sword, she confronted the Savoyards. 'This family of five
persons,' says Froment, 'father, mother, and children, made a great
discomfiture of persons.' The husband was killed, the sons were wounded,
but the mother was unhurt, which was a wonderful thing to see, says the
chronicler, for nobody attacked the enemy with more intrepidity. Another
woman, according to Stettler, rivalled her in courage, and four
Savoyards had already bitten the dust when she fell, struck by a mortal
blow.[641]
[Sidenote: THE PRIESTS CUT DOWN.]
The men did not remain in the background. Fired with martial fury, they
drove their swords through their enemies' bodies, or brained them with
their arquebuses, or else, quickly reloading their guns, brought them
down from a distance.[642] Being skilful marksmen, they picked out their
victims; forty nobles, most of them Knights of the Spoon,[643] bit the
dust; and the priests paid a large tribute to death. The fanatical anger
of the clergy, who marched courageously to battle, was met by the
avenging anger of the Swiss, who were irritated at seeing men of peace
on the field of strife. Wildermuth had pointed out 'the false priests'
to his men. 'There they are now; we must sacrifice them as did Elijah of
old.' The curés, who had not expected such a resistance, found
themselves cut down by those terrible Helvetians, to whom two days of
suffering and the perfidy of their enemies gave a sort of transport. An
excited imagination could alone, perhaps, secure victory to the Swiss.
One of them in particular seemed like the angel of death. The
indignation he felt at seeing the servants of God wielding the sword,
carried him away, and twenty of them fell beneath his blows—a terrible
fulfilment of the words of Christ to Peter: _They that take the sword
shall perish with the sword_. A hundred of these ministers of peace,
turned ministers of war, remained dead or wounded on the field.[644] The
noise was frightful, and was heard a long way off. 'During the battle,'
says Froment, 'there was fierce lightning in the air and loud thunder.'
Was there a storm or are these words only figurative? Perhaps persons at
a distance took the flashes of the guns and the noise of the battle for
thunder and lightning.
[Sidenote: SONG OF THE BERNESE SOLDIER.]
The defeat seemed total and decided. Wildermuth and his followers
thought they would have nothing more to do than march into Geneva, when
an unexpected circumstance forced them to begin again. Another _corps
d'armée_ of Savoye, that which was nearest, summoned by the noise of the
battle, hurried forward to Lugrin's help. It was commanded (as it would
appear) by Michael Mangerot, baron of La Sarraz; he is indeed the only
chief of his party mentioned by some historians.[645] Mangerot, a
Frenchman by extraction and owner of the barony of La Sarraz, had been,
since the Sieur de Pontverre's death, the most formidable of the Knights
of the Spoon. Despite his efforts, none of his men could stand before
the ardor of the Swiss, and intrepidity triumphed over numbers. Those
'tall foreigners,'[646] as the German chronicler styles the Savoyards,
were alarmed and discouraged; they threw away their arms, turned their
backs, and shamefully took to flight,[647] leaving the field of battle
covered with firelocks, breastplates, lances, dead horses and men, among
whom (says the catholic Pierre-Fleur) were many _goodly personages_. The
loss of the Savoyards has been variously estimated from five hundred to
two thousand. In the first rank of the victims of the fight the Swiss
recognized their perfidious guides. The latter had lost only seven men
and one woman. The hill on which these terrible blows were dealt is
still called, in memory of this battle, the _Molard_ or the _mound of
the dead_. The valiant band of the Jura, at the sight of the victims of
the day, halted on the terrible battle-field, and piously bending their
knees amid the scattered arms and blood-stained corpses of their
enemies, returned thanks to God for the great and unexpected victory He
had granted them. The feelings which animated them have been expressed
by a Swiss poet of the time in a _Song of the Bernese Soldier after the
Battle of Gingins_, of which we give a few verses:
Rejoice, O Berne, rejoice![648]
Right joyful shouldst thou be,
For when our grief was sorest
God sent us victory.
By all the world we're hated,
Because the glory due
We render to His name alone.
* * * *
Hail to the Bear, the brave old Bear,[649]
Who, to uphold our right,
Has armed his sons, and covered them
With his broad shield in the fight.
With haste they marched to succor
Geneva, round whose wall
Raved fiercely the mass-worshippers,
All eager for its fall.
But hunger did not stop them,
Nor mountains bar their way,
Nor the sight of the sudden foemen
Could strike them with dismay.
One man to seven we stood,
With weapons rude and few;
But 'God will be our spear,' we said,
Sprang through the hedge, and undismayed
On their steel-clad ranks we flew.
Yes! the Lord was on our side that day,
In our hearts we felt His might,
And Belial's dainty champions
Were scattered in the fight.
See how the bear-cubs taught them
To tread a merry dance!
And the priests, how well we shrived them
With the pricking of a lance!
Ours is the victory! Forward then!
For aid Geneva calls,
Haste to the help of those whose shame
Is to love God's Word and Christ's dear name—
Haste! yonder are her walls!
Meanwhile the report of the battle had spread through the whole
district; all the neighboring villages were in commotion; couriers,
dispatched by Lugrin, hastily ordered up the various corps, stationed at
intervals, to the support of their unhappy commander. These troops
hurried forward at the top of their speed. When the Swiss had finished
their thanksgiving, they looked before them and perceived that the
hostile chiefs were busied in filled up their thinned ranks, and that
fresh bands were joining the Savoyard army. The Sire de Lugrin and the
Baron of La Sarraz at the head of these fresh troops, supported by the
old ones, were about to attack the terrible battalion, posted on the
Molard. The Savoyards were much superior in number, and their leaders
were determined to do everything to recover their honor and crush
liberty in Geneva. The Swiss did not hesitate; they moved forward and
descended the hill to scatter their enemies once more. The struggle was
about to be renewed. Could these famished and exhausted men sustain the
shock of soldiers burning with desire to avenge the deaths of their
comrades?
That was the question: a few hours would probably answer it; but an
unexpected circumstance occurred to give a new turn to affairs.
[634] 'Die Strasse von ihren Feinden der Savoyern verhaget
war.'—Stettler, _Chronik_, p. 70.
[635] Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p. 194.—Stettler, _Chronik_, p. 70.
[636] 'Zu ümgeben, fahen under hencken.'—Stettler, _Chronik_,
p. 70.—MSC. de Roset, liv. iii. ch. 41.
[637] 'Den Berg herab, willens mit den Bernern zu conferiren.'—Stettler,
_Chronik_, p. 71.
[638] Stettler, _Chronik_, p. 70.
[639] 'Mit guten Brægedinen angethan.'—_Ibid._ p. 71.
[640] Berne MS. ascribed to Bonivard.
[641] It would appear from the chroniclers, that these are two distinct
cases. Froment (_Gestes de Genève_, p. 195) says positively that the
woman of whom he speaks _n'eut pas de dommage_; Stettler (_Chronik_,
p. 71) says, on the contrary, of her whom he mentions, that she had _vor
ihrem Tod vier Mann erlegt_. Could one or other of these writers be
mistaken?
[642] 'Stachen, schlossen, und schlugen se männlich.'—Stettler,
_Chronik_, p. 71.
[643] _Supra_, Vol. II. p. 377.
[644] 'Bei hundert priestlichen Personen . . . auf den Platz
gelassen.'—Stettler, _Chronik_, p. 71.
[645] Verdeil, _Histoire du Canton de Vaud_.
[646] Grands Welches.
[647] 'Den Rucken kehrten,' &c.—Stettler, _Chronik_, p. 71.
[648] 'O Bern! du magst wohl frölich seyn!' etc. Recueil de Werner
Sterner. This song is probably by the famous contemporary poet Manuel.
[649] The Bear, i.e. Berne, which has a bear on its shield.