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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=519683" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Battle of Sempach</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Twas when among our linden-trees<br>The bees had housed in swarms,<br>(And grey-hair'd peasants say that these<br>Betoken foreign arms),</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then look'd we down to Willisow,<br>The land was all in flame;<br>We knew the Archduke Leopold<br>With all his army came.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Austrian nobles made their vow,<br>So hot their heart and bold,<br>'On Switzer carles we'll trample now,<br>And slay both young and old.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With clarion loud, and banner proud,<br>From Zurich on the lake,<br>In martial pomp and fair array,<br>Their onward march they make.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Now list, ye lowland nobles all -<br>Ye seek the mountain strand,<br>Nor wot ye what shall be your lot<br>In such a dangerous land.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'I rede ye, shrive ye of your sins,<br>Before ye farther go;<br>A skirmish in Helvetian hills<br>May send your souls to woe.'-</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'But where now shall we find a priest<br>Our shrift that he may hear?'-<br>'The Switzer priest has ta'en the field,<br>He deals a penance drear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Right heavily upon your head<br>He'll lay his hand of steel;<br>And with his trusty partisan<br>Your absolution deal.'-</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Twas on a Monday morning then,<br>The corn was steep'd in dew,<br>And merry maids had sickles ta'en,<br>When the host to Sempach drew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The stalwart men of fair Lucerne<br>Together have they join'd;<br>The pith and core of manhood stern,<br>Was none cast looks behind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was the Lord of Hare-castle,<br>And to the duke he said,<br>'Yon little band of brethren true<br>Will meet us undismay'd.'-</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'O Hare-castle, thou heart of hare!'<br>Fierce Oxenstern replied.-<br>'Shalt see then how the game will fare,'<br>The taunted knight replied.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There was lacing then of helmets bright,<br>And closing ranks amain;<br>The peaks they hew'd from their boot-points<br>Might wellnigh load a wain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And thus they to each other said,<br>'Yon handful down to hew<br>Will be no boastful tale to tell,<br>The peasants are so few.'-</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The gallant Swiss Confederates there<br>They pray'd to God aloud,<br>And he dismay'd his rainbow fair <br>Against a swarthy cloud.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then heart and pulse throbb'd more and more<br>With courage firm and high,<br>And down the good Confederates bore<br>On the Austrian chivalry.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Austrian Lion 'gan to growl<br>And toss his mane and tail;<br>And ball, and shaft, and crossbow bolt,<br>Went whistling forth like hail.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lance, pike, and halbert, mingled there,<br>The game was nothing sweet;<br>The boughs of many a stately tree<br>Lay shiver'd at their feet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Austrian met-at-arms stood fast,<br>So close their spears they laid;<br>It chafed the gallant Winkelreid,<br>Who to his comrades said -</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'I have a virtuous wife at home,<br>A wife and infant son;<br>I leave them to my country's care,-<br>This field shall soon be won.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'These nobles lay their spears right thick,<br>And keep full firm array,<br>Yet shall my charge their order break,<br>And make my brethren way.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He rush'd against the Austrian hand,<br>In desperate career,<br>And with his body, breast, and hand,<br>Bore down each hostile spear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Four lances splinter'd on his crest,<br>Six shiver'd in his side;<br>Still on the serried files he press'd -<br>He broke their ranks, and died.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This patriot's self-devoted deed<br>First tamed the Lion's mood,<br>And the four forest cantons freed<br>From thraldom by his blood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Right where his charge had made a lane,<br>His valiant comrades burst,<br>With sword, and axe, and partisan,<br>And hack, and stab, and thrust.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The daunted Lion 'gan to whine,<br>And granted ground amain,<br>The Mountain Bull he bent his brows,<br>And gored his sides again.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then lost was banner, spear, and shield,<br>At Sempach in the flight,<br>The cloister vaults at Konig's-field<br>Hold many an Austrian knight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was the Archduke Leopold,<br>So lordly would he ride.<br>But he came against the Switzer-churls,<br>And they slew him in his pride.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The heifer said unto the bull,<br>'And shall I not complain?<br>There came a foreign nobleman<br>To milk me on the plain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'One thrust of thine outrageous horn<br>Has gall'd the knight so sore,<br>That to the churchyard he is borne<br>To range our glens no more.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">An Austrian noble left the stour,<br>And fast the flight 'gan take;<br>And he arrived in luckless hour<br>At Sempach on the lake.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He and his squire a fisher call'd,<br>(His name was Hans Von Rot),<br>'For love, or meed, or charity,<br>Receive us in thy boat!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Their anxious call the fisher heard,<br>And, glad the meed to win,<br>His shallop to the shore he steer'd,<br>And took the flyers in.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And while against the tide and wind <br>Hans stoutly row'd his way,<br>The noble to his follower sign'd<br>He should the boatman slay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The fisher's back was to them turn'd,<br>The squire his dagger drew,<br>Hans saw his shadow in the lake,<br>The boat he overthrew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He 'whelmed the boat, and as they strove,<br>He stunn'd them with his oar,<br>'Now, drink ye deep, my gentle sirs,<br>You'll ne'er stab boatman more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Two gilded fishes in the lake<br>This morning have I caught,<br>Their silver scales may much avail,<br>Their carrion flesh is naught.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was a messenger of woe<br>Has sought the Austrian land:<br>'Ah! gracious lady, evil news!<br>My lord lies on the strand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'At Sempach, on the battle-field,<br>His bloody corpse lies there.'-<br>'Ah, gracious God!' the lady cried,<br>'What tidings of despair!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now would you know the minstrel wight<br>Who sings of strife so stern,<br>Albert the Souter is he hight,<br>A burgher of Lucerne.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A merry man was he, I wot,<br>The night he made the lay,<br>Returning from the bloody spot, <br>Where God had judged the day.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Sir+Walter+Scott">Sir Walter Scott</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=519683" data-title="The Battle of Sempach de Sir Walter Scott" data-description="'Twas when among our linden-trees
The bees had housed in swarms,
(And grey-hair'd peasants say that these
Betoken foreign arms),

Then look'd we down to Willisow,
The land was all in flame;
We knew the Archduke Leopold
With all his army came.

The..."></div>
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