Once upon a time, Switzerland was a poor and backward country, and men were forced to live and work as mercenaries in various European countries. Swiss mercenaries were loyal to their employers and brave and wary. In the French Revolution of 1792, mobs attacked the French Tuileries Palace, and the monument built to protect the 786 Swiss officers and guards who died in the French King Louis XVI and Queen Mary was intended to pray for world peace. An arrow was inserted deep into the back of the dying lion, with its painful face, its front paws pressed against the shield and spear, which had the Swiss national emblem on it.