HISTORICAL SKliTCH.—ANECDOTES.

97

same time, succeeded in his expedition by the Bernardino; while Loison andDemont were equally successful—one by the Ober-alp, from the Valley ofUrsern, the other by the Ganghelsberg; while fresh troops forced the passage ofSt. Lucia . In May following the Austrians returned to the charge, and on theloth expelled the French from the Grisons . On the 5th October, GeneralSuwarrow entered Coire at the head of the Russian army. In November theFrench again took possession, but were shortly after compelled by the Austriansto retreat. In July, the following year, the latter being attacked at everypoint in the Grison territory, were finally driven from Coire , and all the valleysof the Rhine . In November, the same year, General (afterwards Marshal)Macdonald passed through Coire , at the head of a second army of reserve,on his perilous march over the Spliigen—an expedition of which we shallshortly speak.

From the dominion of the Franks down to the commencement of the fifteenthcentury, the people of Upper Rhsetia had been tributaries or vassals of the Bishopof Coire, the abbots of Disentis and Pfeffers, and other spiritual lords, aswell as of numberless counts, barons, and nobles. The citizens of Coire ,although enjoying various privileges under their episcopal lord, had many causesof complaint; whilst the poor in the villages endured a succession of thegreatest hardships—plundered during the almost incessant broils of their greator petty lords, and oppressed and impoverished by their exactions in time ofpeace. Never had Uri, Schwytz and Unterwalden more merciless tyrants thanRhaetia ; but, like these, goaded on to a point past endurance, Rluctia also foundher Tell.

In the Valley of Engadine , from whose glaciers the impetuous Inn rushesdown towards the Tyrol, crowning a rocky eminence above the village ofMadulein , stood the castle of Gardoval,—the terror of the surrounding country.It happened that the castellan, passing one day through the opposite village ofCamogask, was struck with the beauty of a young girl, daughter of a respectablepeasant, who chanced to cross his path, and whom, like another Appius,he ordered his menials to seize and bring to his castle the same night. Longaccustomed to the execution of such orders, the messengers soon appeared at thethreshold of the girl’s father, whose name was Adam. Readily surmising theirerrand, the father was horror-struck; and seeing his daughter overwhelmed withdespair, made a powerful effort to disguise the indignation which boiled withinhim, and temporising with great presence of mind :—“ My daughter,” said he,

“ being quite unprepared for a message of such honour, I pray you grant hersome little space to arrange her dress and ornaments, in order that she may

c c