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Behold now twice seven centuries.—That a Vandal hero bravest among warriors.—Founded this fortress.—This fortified city has since preserved the name of the Grue.—The stranger became the first count.—His descendants carried the Grue on their scarlet banners.—And on their hairy shields.—To the Vandal hero succeeded a long line of illustrious descendants.—Rich in fortune, rich in their piety.—These Counts won the order of the golden vest.—And for many centuries the posterity of Gruerius.—Chief of t

n the edge of a green plain around which rise the first steps of the immense amphitheatre of the Alps, a little castled city enthroned on a solitary hill watches since a thousand years the eternal and surpassing spectacle. Around its feet a river runs, a silver girdle bending northward between pastures green, while eastward over the towering azure heights the sunrise waves its flags of rose and gold. In the dim hours of twilight or by a cloudy moonlight, the city pitched amid the drifting aerial

riply woven of the French, German and Italian races, the Swiss nation discovers in its Romand or French strain another triple weave of Celtic-Romand-Burgundian descent. While the high mountainous regions of eastern Switzerland were early scaled and settled by the Germanic tribes, the western were still earlier inhabited by the ancient Celtic-Helvetians and then civilized and cultivated by the most luxurious of Roman colonies. Resisting first and then happily mingling with their Roman conquerors,

wenty lords of Gruyère made up the line which maintained a singularly kindly and paternal rule over the differing people of their pastoral kingdom; all of one race, and all but the three last in the direct descent from father to son. Six centuries they ruled, distinguished first for their inexhaustible love of life, their knightly valor and their fidelity to the Catholic faith. The first Count Turimbert, with his wife Avana, lived in the first castle belonging to the domain at Castrum in Ogo or

n the middle of the thirteenth century the counts of Gruyère—who had so long been oppressed by the grasping prelates of the Church—came within the orbit of another power, that of the rising house of Savoy. Fortifying their influence by alliances with the kingdoms of Europe, extending its domains over occidental Switzerland and far into Italy, the counts of Savoy were already in a position to dispute the power of the bishops, when Count Pierre took his place at the head of his house. Although he

odolphe IV, eldest son of Count Pierre, although sole inheritor of the title and authority of count, had two younger brothers Pierre and Jean, who perpetuated the strongly contrasted traits of the elder Pierre and Jean. But in the second generation the rôles were changed. Pierre was the religious brother, and became prior of Rougemont, while Jean, even more eager for martial glory than his father, went far from home to join the English armies of Edward III and the Black Prince in their wars with

he inheritance of the estates Count Antoine had so diminished by his improvident generosity was bitterly contested by the husbands of his two sisters, but the duke of Savoy did not hesitate to recognize the rights of his legitimized descendants, and François I of Gruyère and his brother Jean of Montsalvens entered without difficulty into the enjoyment of their inheritances. Count François, flower of the race of pastoral kings, presents one more historical example of the brilliant intellect, of t

mong the many benefits with which Count François' ability and sagacity had enriched his inherited estates were the acquisition of the seigneuries of Grandcour and Aigremont, and the repurchase of the beautiful castles of Oron and Aubonne. The two latter residences were assigned during his life to his two sons Louis and François, Louis being early established at Aubonne, and François becoming seigneur of Oron. Louis, worthy successor of his father, passed at Aubonne by the shores of lake Leman a

n view of the tender age and delicate health of his only son, Count Louis, having long enjoyed a formal alliance with Fribourg, thought it wise to make a like treaty with Berne; and foreseeing that his son's life would probably not be a long one, he drew up a will in which he appointed his successors. In this will, he decreed that his brother François should be the next heir, after him his daughter Hélène, and next, in default of male heirs of the direct line, the son of his brother, Jean de Mon

he death of Count Jean in the beginning of the 16th century left to his son Jean II the task of upholding the old ideals of the Gruyère house against the continually growing democracy in Switzerland, as well as against the advance of religious reform. Endowed with all his father's firmness, he possessed the chivalric ardor of his predecessors and a full share of their personal charm. The long and intimate relation of Gruyère and Savoy which had been interrupted by his father's maintenance of his

he three sons of Count Jean II not strangely reflected the conditions of their birth and the widely differing characters of their mothers. François, only son of his second marriage, which was founded on a real preference and esteem, possessed the kindly and charitable nature of his mother and the firm character of his distinguished Gruyère ancestors. Jean, the illegitimate son of Luce d'Alberguex, was lovable and valorous, but lacking in firmness or dignity of character. Michel, the heir of Gruy

early four hundred years have passed since the fall of its counts, but the merciless march of democracy, although changing the government of Gruyère has left the people strangely unaltered. In spite of the injunctions of the Lutheran Bernois, they still danced and sang, and until the dawn of the present century still spoke their musical patois. The château, long used as the residence of a préfet of Fribourg, was offered for sale when in the middle of the 19th century the prefecture was transferr

The traditions of Romand Helvetia have preserved the memory of the establishment of Vandal or Burgundian hordes in that part of Gaul. Thus has arisen the belief that the once wild region traversed by the river Sarine came into the possession of some chief of these tribes who there settled with his followers. The unavowed author (Bonsetten) of a history of the Counts of Gruyère is of the opinion that it is possible that, in accordance with the customs of the Germanic tribes, that Gruerius, the he

Histoire du Comté de Gruyère. J.-J. Hisely. 1851, Lausanne. Monuments de l'Histoire du Comté de Gruyère. Abbé Gremaud. Mémoires et Documents publiés par la Société d'Histoire de la Suisse Romande. Vol I à VII, IX, X, XI. 1838 à ce jour. Die Gräfin von Gruyère , de Rodt. (Der Schweizerische Geschicht Forster. Berne, 1847.) Die Schweiz in Ihren Ritterbürgen. Berne, 1828. Tableaux Historiques de la Suisse. Vol. I, abbé Girard. Premier tableau, Gruyère. Carouge (Léman), 1802. Le Conservateur Suisse.