Page:Ernestus Berchtold or the Modern Œdipus.djvu/57

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ERNESTUS BERCHTOLD.
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ful in their watch over them. I once more joined the Underwalders, and was again witness to the defeat of my countrymen. I met the young officer I had saved from slaughter at Musingen. His name was Olivieri. We had no time for intercourse, always in action or on the march, we only saw one another in the field, where we often joined and tried to vie with each other in acts of daring and courage. We became at last noted in the army, and though only volunteers, we each soon found ourselves at the head of about ninety men, who always were ready to obey our commands.

In the midst of our struggles in the Underwald, intelligence reached us of an insurrection having taken place in the upper Valais; it was deemed necessary by the leaders of our army to send them assistance, and thus cause a diversion in our favour. They proposed that one hundred men should be given to each of us, and that with this force we should be