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FURST.
Compose yourself, and wait in patience till We get some tidings o'er from Unterwald.
Away! away! I hear a knock! Perhaps A message from the viceroy! Get thee in!
You are not safe from Landenberger's [6] arm In Uri, for these tyrants pull together.
MELCHTHAL.
They teach us Switzers what we ought to do.
FURST.
Away! I'll call you when the coast is clear.
[MELCHTHAL retires.
Unhappy youth! I dare not tell him all The evil that my boding heart predicts!
Who's there? The door ne'er opens but I look For tidings of mishap. Suspicion lurks With darkling treachery in every nook.
Even to our inmost rooms they force their way, These myrmidons of power; and soon we'll need To fasten bolts and bars upon our doors.
[He opens the door and steps back in surprise as WERNER STAUFFACHER enters.
What do I see? You, Werner? Now, by Heaven!
A valued guest, indeed. No man e'er set His foot across this threshold more esteemed.
Welcome! thrice welcome, Werner, to my roof!
What brings you here? What seek you here in Uri?
STAUFFACHER (shakes FURST by the hand).
The olden times and olden Switzerland.
FURST.
You bring them with you. See how I'm rejoiced, My heart leaps at the very sight of you.
Sit down--sit down, and tell me how you left Your charming wife, fair Gertrude? Iberg's child, And clever as her father. Not a man, That wends from Germany, by Meinrad's Cell, [7]
To Italy, but praises far and wide Your house's hospitality. But say, Have you come here direct from Flueelen, And have you noticed nothing on your way, Before you halted at my door?
STAUFFACHER (sits down).
I saw A work in progress, as I came along, I little thought to see--that likes me ill.
FURST.
O friend! you've lighted on my thought at once.
STAUFFACHER.
Such things in Uri ne'er were known before.
Never was prison here in man's remembrance, Nor ever any stronghold but the grave.
FURST.
You name it well. It is the grave of freedom.
STAUFFACHER.
Friend, Walter Furst, I will be plain with you.
No idle curiosity it is That brings me here, but heavy cares. I left Thraldom at home, and thraldom meets me here.
Our wrongs, e'en now, are more than we can bear.
And who shall tell us where they are to end?
From eldest time the Switzer has been free, Accustomed only to the mildest rule.
Such things as now we suffer ne'er were known Since herdsmen first drove cattle to the hills.
FURST.
Yes, our oppressions are unparalleled!
Why, even our own good lord of Attinghaus, Who lived in olden times, himself declares They are no longer to be tamely borne.
STAUFFACHER.
In Unterwalden yonder 'tis the same; And b.l.o.o.d.y has the retribution been.
The imperial seneschal, the Wolfshot, who At Rossberg dwelt, longed for forbidden fruits-- Baumgarten's wife, that lives at Alzellen, He wished to overcome in shameful sort, On which the husband slew him with his axe.
FURST.
Oh, Heaven is just in all its judgments still!
Baumgarten, say you? A most worthy man.
Has he escaped, and is he safely hid?
STAUFFACHER.
Your son-in-law conveyed him o'er the lake, And he lies hidden in my house at Steinen.
He brought the tidings with him of a thing That has been done at Sarnen, worse than all, A thing to make the very heart run blood!
FURST (attentively).
Say on. What is it?
STAUFFACHER.
There dwells in Melchthal, then, Just as you enter by the road from Kearns, An upright man, named Henry of the Halden, A man of weight and influence in the Diet.
FURST.
Who knows him not? But what of him? Proceed.
STAUFFACHER.
The Landenberg, to punish some offence, Committed by the old man's son, it seems, Had given command to take the youth's best pair Of oxen from his plough: on which the lad Struck down the messenger and took to flight.
FURST.
But the old father--tell me, what of him?
STAUFFACHER.
The Landenberg sent for him, and required He should produce his son upon the spot; And when the old man protested, and with truth, That he knew nothing of the fugitive, The tyrant called his torturers.
FURST (springs up and tries to lead him to the other side).
Hush, no more!
STAUFFACHER (with increasing warmth).
"And though thy son," he cried, "Has escaped me now, I have thee fast, and thou shalt feel my vengeance."
With that they flung the old man to the earth, And plunged the pointed steel into his eyes.
FURST.
Merciful heavens!
MELCHTHAL (rushing out).
