A fearful slaughter now ensued. The Burgundians were utterly
vanquished. The haughty duke, pale and dispirited, fled with a few
followers, and never stopped till he reached the banks of Lake Leman.
The rout was so complete that many of the Burgundians, in terror and
despair, threw themselves into the Lake of Morat, the banks of which
were strewed with the bodies of the slain.
52. The battle of Morat lives in history with the victories of
Marathon and Bannockburn. In each, freedom for the nation was secured,
and liberty for man was preserved and transmitted. As a deed, the
Swiss victory for ever freed a people from a grasping foreign tyrant;
and it is a matter of rejoicing to all who love liberty till to-day,
and, like other great events, it is the subject of national traditions.
53. According to one of these, a young native of Friburg, who had been
engaged in the battle, keenly desirous of being the first to carry
home tidings of the victory, ran the whole way--a distance of ten or
twelve miles--and with such overhaste that on his arrival at the
market-place he dropped with fatigue, and, barely able to shout that
the Swiss were victorious, immediately expired. A twig of lime-tree,
which he carried in his hand, was planted on the spot in commemoration
of this event; and till the present day are seen, in the market-place
of Friburg, the aged and propped-up remains of the venerable tree
which grew from this twig.
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