FURST.
Gracious Heaven!
[Peasants rise up and throng round Stauffacher.]
ALL.
Murder'd!-the Emp'ror? What! The Emp'ror! Hear!
MELCH.
Impossible! How came you by the news?
STAUFF.
'Tis true! Near Bruck, by the assassin's hand,
King Albert fell. A most trustworthy man,
John Muller, from Schaffhausen, brought the news.
FURST.
Who dared commit so horrible a deed?
STAUFF.
The doer makes the deed more dreadful still;
It was his nephew, his own brother's son,
Duke John of Austria, who struck the blow.
MELCH.
What drove him to so dire a parricide?
STAUFF.
The Emp'ror kept his patrimony back,
Despite his urgent importunities;
'Twas said, he meant to keep it for himself,
And with a mitre to appease the duke.
However this may be, the duke gave ear
To the ill counsel of his friends in arms:
And with the noble lords, Von Eschenbach,
Von Tegerfeld, Von Wart and Palm, resolved,
Since his demands for justice were despised,
With his own hands to take revenge at least.
FURST.
But say-the dreadful deed, how was it done?
STAUFF.
The king was riding down from Stein to Baden,
Upon his way to join the court at Rheinfeld,-
With him a train of high-born gentlemen,
And the young Princes John and Leopold;
And when they'd reach'd the ferry of the Reuss,
The assassins forced their way into the boat,
To separate the Emperor from his suite.
His highness landed, and was riding on
Across a fresh plough'd field-where once, they say,
A mighty city stood in Pagan times-
With Hapsburg's ancient turrets full in sight,
That was the cradle of his princely race.
When Duke John plunged a dagger in his throat,
Palm ran him thro' the body with his lance,
And Eschenbach, to end him, clove his skull;
So down he sank, all weltering in his blood,
On his own soil, by his own kinsmen slain.
Those on the opposite bank beheld the deed,
But, parted by the stream, could only raise
An unavailing cry of loud lament.
A poor old woman, sitting by the way,
Raised him, and on her breast he bled to death.
MELCH.
Thus has he dug his own untimely grave,
Who sought insatiably to grasp it all.
STAUFF.
The country round is fill'd with dire alarm,
The passes are blockaded everywhere,
And sentinels on ev'ry frontier set;
E'en ancient Zurich barricades her gates,
That have stood open for these thirty years,
Dreading the murd'rers and th' avengers more.
For cruel Agnes comes, the Hungarian Queen,
By all her sex's tenderness untouch'd,
Arm'd with the thunders of the ban, to wreak
Dire vengeance for her parent's royal blood,
On the whole race of those that murder'd him,-
Their servants, children, children's children,-yea,
Upon the stones that built their castle walls.
Deep has she sworn a vow to immolate
Whole generations on her father's tomb,
And bathe in blood as in the dew of May.
MELCH.
Is't known which way the murderers have fled?
STAUFF.
No sooner had they done the deed, than they
Took flight, each following a different route,
And parted ne'er to see each other more.
Duke John must still be wand'ring in the mountains.
FURST.
And thus their crime has borne no fruit for them.
Revenge bears never fruit. Itself, it is
The dreadful food it feeds on; its delight
Is murder-its satiety despair.
STAUFF.
The assassins reap no profit by their crime;
But we shall pluck with unpolluted hands
The teeming fruits of their most bloody deed.
For we are ransomed from our heaviest fear;
The direst foe of liberty has fallen,
And, 'tis reported, that the crown will pass
From Hapsburg's house into another line;
The Empire is determined to assert
Its old prerogative of choice, I hear.
FURST (and several others).
Is any named?
STAUFF.
The Count of Luxembourg's
Already chosen by the general voice.
FURST.
'Tis well we stood so staunchly by the Empire!
Now we may hope for justice, and with cause.
STAUFF.
The Emperor will need some valiant friends.
He will 'gainst Austria's vengeance be our shield.
[The peasantry embrace. Enter Sacristan with Imperial messenger .]
SACRIS.
Here are the worthy chiefs of Switzerland!
ROSSEL. (and several others.)
Sacrist, what news?
SACRIS.
A courier brings this letter.
ALL (to Walter Furst).
Open and read it.
FURST (reading).
"To the worthy men Of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwald, the Queen
Elizabeth sends grace and all good wishes."
MANY VOICES.
What wants the queen with us? Her reign is done.
FURST (reading).
"In the great grief and doleful widowhood,
In which the bloody exit of her lord
Has plunged the queen, still in her mind she bears
The ancient faith and love of Switzerland."
MELCH.
She ne'er did that in her prosperity.
ROSSEL.
Hush, let us hear!
FURST (reading).
"And she is well assured,
Her people will in due abhorrence hold
The perpetrators of this damned deed.
On the three Cantons, therefore, she relies,
That they in nowise lend the murderers aid;
But rather, that they loyally assist,
To give them up to the avenger's hand,
Remembering the love and grace which they
Of old received from Rudolph's royal house."
[Symptoms of dissatisfaction among the peasantry.]
MANY VOICES.
The love and grace!
STAUFF.
Grace from the father we, indeed, received,
But what have we to boast of from the son?
Did he confirm the charter of our freedom,
As all preceding emperors had done?
Did he judge righteous judgment, or afford
Shelter, or stay, to innocence oppress'd?
Nay, did he e'en give audience to the men
We sent to lay our grievances before him?
Not one of all these things did the king do,
And had we not ourselves achieved our rights
By our own stalwart hands, the wrongs we bore
Had never touch'd him. Gratitude to him!
Within these vales he sowed no seeds of that;
He stood upon an eminence-he might
Have been a very father to his people,
But all his aim and pleasure was to raise
Himself and his own house: and now may those
Whom he has aggrandized, lament for him.
FURST.
We will not triumph in his fall, nor now
Recall to mind the wrongs that we endured.