ARNOLD WINKELREID BY JAMES MONTGOMERY

ARNOLD WINKELREID
BY JAMES MONTGOMERY
"Make way for Liberty!"—he cried; Made way for liberty, and died!
In arms the Austrian phalanx stood, A living wall, a human wood! Impregnable their front appears, All horrent with projected spears. Opposed to these, a hovering band Contended for their fatherland; Peasants whose new-found strength had broke From manly necks the ignoble yoke: Marshaled once more at Freedom's call, They came to conquer or to fall.
And now the work of life and death Hung in the passing of a breath; The fire of conflict burned within; The battle trembled to begin; Yet, while the Austrians held their ground, Point for assault was nowhere found; Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed, The unbroken line of lances blazed;
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That line 't were suicide to meet
And perish at their tyrants' feet.
And could they rest within their graves,
To leave their homes the haunts of slaves?
Would they not feel their children tread
With clanking chains, above their head?
It must not be: this day, this hour, Annihilates the invaders' power. All Switzerland is in the field, She will not fly; she cannot yield; She must not fall; her better fate Here gives her an immortal date. Few were the numbers she could boast; But every freeman was a host, And felt as 't were a secret known That one should turn the scale alone: While each unto himself was he On whose sole arm hung victory.
It did depend on one, indeed;
Behold him—Arnold Winkelreid;
There sounds not to the trump of Fame
The echo of a nobler name.
Unmarked, he stood among the throng,
In rumination deep and long,
Till you might see, with sudden grace,
The very thought come o 'er his face;
And, by the motion of his form,
Anticipate the bursting storm;
And, by the uplifting of his brow,
Tell where the bolt would strike and how.
But 't was no sooner thought than done-* The field was in a moment won! * 'Make way for liberty!" he cried: Then ran with arms extended wide, As if his dearest friend to clasp; Ten spears he swept within his grasp. "Make way for Liberty !" he cried; Their keen points met from side to side, He bowed among them like a tree, And thus made way for Liberty.
Swift to the breach his comrades fly—
"Make way for Liberty!" they cry;
And through the Austrian phalanx dart,
As rushed the spears through Arnold's heart;
"While, instantaneous as his fall,
Rout, ruin, panic scattered all:
An earthquake could not overthrow
A city with a surer blow.
Thus Switzerland again was free; Thus Death made way for Liberty.