TELL.

And oft the one close on the other treads.

STUSSI.

So runs the world we live in.  Everywhere
Mischance befalls and misery enough. 
In Glarus there has been a landslip, and
A whole side of the Glaernisch has fallen in.

TELL.

How!  Do the very hills begin to quake? 
There is stability for naught on earth.

STUSSI.

Of strange things, too, we hear from other parts. 
I spoke with one but now, from Baden come,
Who said a knight was on his way to court,
And, as he rode along, a swarm of wasps
Surrounded him, and settling on his horse,
So fiercely stung the beast, that it fell dead,
And he proceeded to the court on foot.

TELL.

The weak are also furnish’d with a sting.

ARMGART (enters with several children, and places herself at the entrance of the pass).

STUSSI.

’Tis thought to bode disaster to the land—­
Some horrid deeds against the course of nature.

TELL.

Why, every day brings forth such fearful deeds;
There needs no prodigy to herald them.

STUSSI.

Ay, happy he, who tills his field in peace,
And sits at home untroubled with his kin.

TELL.

The very meekest cannot be at peace
If his ill neighbor will not let him rest.

[TELL looks frequently with restless expectation toward the top of the pass.]

STUSSI.

So fare you well!  You’re waiting someone here?

TELL.

I am.

STUSSI.

God speed you safely to your home! 
You are from Uri, are you not?  His grace
The governor’s expected thence today.

TRAVELER (entering).

Look not to see the governor today. 
The streams are flooded by the heavy rains,
And all the bridges have been swept away.

     [TELL rises.]

ARMGART (coming forward).

Gessler not coming?

STUSSI.

Want you aught with him?

ARMGART.

Alas, I do!

STUSSI.

Why then, thus place yourself
Where you obstruct his passage down the pass?

ARMGART.

Here he cannot escape me.  He must hear me.

FRIESSHARDT (coming hastily down the pass and calls upon the stage).

Make way, make way!  My lord, the governor,
Is close behind me, riding down the pass.

[Exit TELL.]

ARMGART (excitedly).

The Viceroy comes!

[She goes toward the pass with her children.  GESSLER and RUDOLPH DER HARRAS appear on horseback at the upper end of the pass.]

STUSSI (to FRIESSHARDT).

How got ye through the stream,
When all the bridges have been carried down?

FRIESS.

We’ve fought, friend, with the tempest on the lake;
An Alpine torrent’s nothing after that.