The neighboring barons, alarmed at this rapid aggrandizement of
Rhodolph, formed an alliance to crush him. The mountaineers heard his
bugle call, and rushed to his aid. Zurich opened her gates, and her
marshaled troops hastened to his banner. From Hapsburg, and Rheinfelden,
and Suabia, and Brisgau, and we know not how many other of the
territorial possessions of the count, the vassals rushed to the aid of
their lord. They met in one of the valleys of Zurich. The battle was
short, and the confederated barons were put to utter flight. Some took
refuge in the strong castle of Balder, upon a rocky cliff washed by the
Albis. Rhodolph selected thirty horsemen and thirty footmen.
"Will you follow me," said he, "in an enterprise where the honor will be
equal to the peril?"
A universal shout of assent was the response. Concealing the footmen in
a thicket, he, at the head of thirty horsemen, rode boldly to the gates
of the castle, bidding defiance, with all the utterances and
gesticulations of contempt, to the whole garrison. Those on the
ramparts, stung by the insult, rushed out to chastise so impudent a
challenge. The footmen rose from their ambush, and assailants and
assailed rushed pell mell in at the open gates of the castle.
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