  Baronial mansion of Attinghausen. The BARON upon a couch dying. WALTER FURST, STAUFFACHER, MELCHTHAL, and BAUMGARTEN attending round him. WALTER TELL kneeling before the dying man. FURST. All now is over with him. He is gone. STAUFFACHER. He lies not like one dead. The feather, see, Moves on his lips! His sleep is very calm, And on his features plays a placid smile. [BAUMGARTEN goes to the door and speaks with some one. FURST. Who's there? BAUGMARTEN (returning). Tell's wife, your daughter; she insists That she must speak with you, and see her boy. [WALTER TELL rises. FURST. I who need comfort—can I comfort her? Does every sorrow centre on my head? HEDWIG (forcing her way in). Where is my child? Unhand me! I must see him. STAUFFACHER. Be calm! Reflect you're in the house of death! HEDWIG (falling upon her boy's neck). My Walter! Oh, he yet is mine! WALTER. Dear mother! HEDWIG. And is it surely so? Art thou unhurt? [Gazing at him with anxious tenderness. And is it possible he aimed at thee? How could he do it? Oh, he has no heart— And he could wing an arrow at his child! FURST. His soul was racked with anguish when he did it. No choice was left him, but to shoot or die! HEDWIG. Oh, if he had a father's heart, he would Have sooner perished by a thousand deaths! STAUFFACHER. You should be grateful for God's gracious care, That ordered things so well. HEDWIG. Can I forget What might have been the issue. God of heaven! Were I to live for centuries, I still Should see my boy tied up,—his father's mark, And still the shaft would quiver in my heart! MELCHTHAL. You know not how the viceroy taunted him! HEDWIG. Oh, ruthless heart of man! Offend his pride, And reason in his breast forsakes her seat; In his blind wrath he'll stake upon a cast A child's existence, and a mother's heart! BAUMGARTEN. Is then your husband's fate not hard enough, That you embitter it by such reproaches? Have you no feeling for his sufferings? HEDWIG (turning to him and gazing full upon him). Hast thou tears only for thy friend's distress? Say, where were you when he—my noble Tell, Was bound in chains? Where was your friendship, then? The shameful wrong was done before your eyes; Patient you stood, and let your friend be dragged, Ay, from your very hands. Did ever Tell Act thus to you? Did he stand whining by When on your heels the viceroy's horsemen pressed, And full before you roared the storm-tossed lake? Oh, not with idle tears he showed his pity; Into the boat he sprung, forgot his home, His wife, his children, and delivered thee! FURST. It had been madness to attempt his rescue, Unarmed, and few in numbers as we were. HEDWIG (casting herself upon his bosom). Oh, father, and thou, too, hast lost my Tell! The country—all have lost him! All lament His loss; and, oh, how he must pine for us! Heaven keep his soul from sinking to despair! No friend's consoling voice can penetrate His dreary dungeon walls. Should befall sick! Ah! In the vapors of the murky vault He must fall sick. Even as the Alpine rose Grows pale and withers in the swampy air, There is no life for him, but in the sun, And in the balm of heaven's refreshing breeze. Imprisoned? Liberty to him is breath; He cannot live in the rank dungeon air! STAUFFACHER. Pray you be calm! And, hand in hand, we'll all Combine to burst his prison doors. HEDWIG. Without him, What have you power to do? While Tell was free, There still, indeed, was hope—weak innocence Had still a friend, and the oppressed a stay. Tell saved you all! You cannot all combined Release him from his cruel prison bonds. [The BARON wakes. BAUMGARTEN. Hush, hush! He starts! ATTINGHAUSEN (sitting up). Where is he? STAUFFACHER. Who? ATTINGHAUSEN. He leaves me,— In my last moments he abandons me. STAUFFACHER. He means his nephew. Have they sent for him? FURST. He has been summoned. Cheerily, Sir! Take comfort! He has found his heart at last, and is our own. ATTINGHAUSEN. Say, has he spoken for his native land? STAUFFACHER. Ay, like a hero! ATTINGHAUSEN. Wherefore comes he not, That he may take my blessing ere I die? I feel my life fast ebbing to a close. STAUFFACHER. Nay, talk not thus, dear Sir! This last short sleep Has much refreshed you, and your eye is bright. ATTINGHAUSEN. Life is but pain, and even that has left me; My sufferings, like my hopes, have passed away. [Observing the boy. What boy is that? FURST. Bless him. Oh, good my lord! He is my grandson, and is fatherless. [HEDWIG kneels with the boy before the dying man. ATTINGHAUSEN. And fatherless I leave you all, ay, all! Oh, wretched fate, that these old eyes should see My country's ruin, as they close in death. Must I attain the utmost verge of life, To feel my hopes go with me to the grave. STAUFFACHER (to FURST). Shall he depart 'mid grief and gloom like this? Shall not his parting moments be illumed By hope's delightful beams? My noble lord, Raise up your drooping spirit! We are not Forsaken quite—past all deliverance. ATTINGHAUSEN. Who shall deliver you? FURST. Ourselves. For know The Cantons three are to each other pledged To hunt the tyrants from the land. The league Has been concluded, and a sacred oath Confirms our union. Ere another year Begins its circling course—the blow shall fall. In a free land your ashes shall repose. ATTINGHAUSEN. The league concluded! Is it really so? MELCHTHAL. On one day shall the Cantons rise together. All is prepared to strike—and to this hour The secret closely kept though hundreds share it; The ground is hollow 'neath the tyrant's feet; Their days of rule are numbered, and ere long No trace of their dominion shall remain. ATTINGHAUSEN. Ay, but their castles, how to master them? MELCHTHAL. On the same day they, too, are doomed to fall. ATTINGHAUSEN. And are the nobles parties to this league? STAUFFACHER. We trust to their assistance should we need it; As yet the peasantry alone have sworn. ATTINGHAUSEN (raising himself up in great astonishment). And have the peasantry dared such a deed On their own charge without their nobles' aid— Relied so much on their own proper strength? Nay then, indeed, they want our help no more; We may go down to death cheered by the thought That after us the majesty of man Will live, and be maintained by other hands. [He lays his hand upon the head of the child, who is kneeling before him. From this boy's head, whereon the apple lay, Your new and better liberty shall spring; The old is crumbling down—the times are changing And from the ruins blooms a fairer life. STAUFFACHER (to FURST). See, see, what splendor streams around his eye! This is not nature's last expiring flame, It is the beam of renovated life. ATTINGHAUSEN. From their old towers the nobles are descending, And swearing in the towns the civic oath. In Uechtland and Thurgau the work's begun; The noble Bern lifts her commanding head, And Freyburg is a stronghold of the free; The stirring Zurich calls her guilds to arms; And now, behold! the ancient might of kings Is shivered against her everlasting walls. [He speaks what follows with a prophetic tone; his utterance rising into enthusiasm. I see the princes and their haughty peers, Clad all in steel, come striding on to crush A harmless shepherd race with mailed hand. Desperate the conflict: 'tis for life or death; And many a pass will tell to after years Of glorious victories sealed in foemen's blood. 25 The peasant throws himself with naked breast, |
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