The first step towards this happy revolution was made by some _venerable
old men dressed in the coarse grey cloth_ of the country, who in the
year 1424 met privately in a wood near a place called Truns, in the
Upper League; where, _impressed with a sense of their former
liberties_,[AD] they determined to remonstrate against, and oppose, the
violent proceedings of their oppressors. The abbot Dissentis was the
first who countenanced their measures; their joint influence gradually
prevailed over several of the most moderate among the nobles; and hence
arose the league which, from the colour of its first promoters, was ever
called the Grey League; which, from its being the first in the bold
attempt to shake off the yoke of wanton tyranny, has ever since retained
the pre-eminence in rank before the two other leagues; and which has
even given its name to the whole country, whose inhabitants, from the
circumstances of their deliverance, pride themselves in the appellation
of _Grisones_, or the _grey-ones_.[AE] From this period nothing has ever
affected their freedom and absolute independence, which they now enjoy
in the most unlimited sense, in spite of the repeated efforts of the
house of Austria to recover some degree of ascendency over them.
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