ATTING.

Who shall deliver you?

FUeRST.

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.

ATTING.

The league concluded!  Is it really so?

MELCH.

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 tyrants’ feet;
Their days of rule are number’d, and ere long
No trace will of their hateful sway be left.

ATTING.

Ay, but their castles, how to master them?

MELCH.

On the same day they, too, are doom’d to fall.

ATTING.

And are the nobles parties to this league?

STAUFF.

We trust to their assistance, should we need it;
As yet the peasantry alone have sworn.

ATTING. (raising himself up in great astonishment).

And have the peasantry dared such a deed
On their own charge, without the 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 cheer’d by the thought
That after us the majesty of man
Will live, and be maintain’d 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 FUeRST).

See, see, what splendor streams around his eye! 
This is not Nature’s last expiring flame,
It is the beam of renovated life.

ATTING.

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 Berne 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 shiver’d ’gainst 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. 
Desp’rate the conflict:  ’tis for life or death;
And many a pass will tell to after years
Of glorious victories sealed in foemen’s blood.[58]
The peasant throws himself with naked breast,
A willing victim on their serried spears;
They yield—­the flower of chivalry’s cut down,
And Freedom waves her conquering banner high.