A lime tree in front of Stauffacher's house at Steinen, in Schwytz, upon the public road, near a bridge.
Werner Stauffacher and Pfeiffer, of Lucerne, enter into conversation.
PFEIFF.
Ay, ay, friend Stauffacher, as I have said, Swear not to Austria, if you can help it.
Hold by the Empire stoutly as of yore, And God preserve you in your ancient freedom!
[Presses his hand warmly, and is going.]
STAUFF.
Wait till my mistress comes.Now do! You are My guest in Schwytz--I in Lucerne am yours.
PFEIFF.
Thanks! thanks! But I must reach Gersau to-day.
Whatever grievances your rulers' pride And grasping avarice may yet inflict, Bear them in patience--soon a change may come.
Another emperor may mount the throne.
But Austria's once, and you are hers for ever.
[Exit.]
[Stauffacher sits down sorrowfully upon a bench under the lime tree.
Gertrude, his wife, enters, and finds him in this posture.She places herself near him, and looks at him for some time in silence.]
GERT.
So sad, my love! I scarcely know thee now.
For many a day in silence I have mark'd A moody sorrow furrowing thy brow.
Some silent grief is weighing on thy heart.
Trust it to me.I am thy faithful wife, And I demand my half of all thy cares.
[Stauffacher gives her his hand and is silent.]
Tell me what can oppress thy spirits thus?
Thy toil is blest--the world goes well with thee--Our barns are full--our cattle, many a score;Our handsome team of well-fed horses, too, Brought from the mountain pastures safely home, To winter in their comfortable stalls.
There stands thy house--no nobleman's more fair!
'Tis newly built with timber of the best, All grooved and fitted with the nicest skill;Its many glistening windows tell of comfort!
'Tis quarter'd o'er with' scutcheons of all hues, And proverbs sage, which passing travellers Linger to read, and ponder o'er their meaning.
STAUFF.
The house is strongly built, and handsomely, But, ah! the ground on which we built it quakes.
GERT.
Tell me, dear Werner, what you mean by that?
STAUFF.
No later gone than yesterday, I sat Beneath this linden, thinking with delight, How fairly all was finished, when from Kussnacht The Viceroy and his men came riding by.
Before this house he halted in surprise:
At once I rose, and, as beseemed his rank, Advanced respectfully to greet the lord, To whom the Emperor delegates his power, As judge supreme within our Canton here.
"Who is the owner of this house?" he asked, With mischief in his thoughts, for well he knew.
With prompt decision, thus I answered him:
"The Emperor, your grace--my lord and yours, And held by me in fief." On this he answered, "I am the Emperor's viceregent here, And will not that each peasant churl should build At his own pleasure, bearing him as freely As though he were the master in the land.
I shall make bold to put a stop to this!"So saying, he, with menaces, rode off, And left me musing with a heavy heart On the fell purpose that his words betray'd.
GERT.
My own dear lord and husband! Wilt thou take A word of honest counsel from thy wife?
I boast to be the noble Iberg's child, A man of wide experience.Many a time, As we sat spinning in the winter nights, My sisters and myself, the people's chiefs Were wont to gather round our father's hearth, To read the old imperial charters, and To hold sage converse on the country's weal.
Then heedfully I listened, marking well What now the wise man thought, the good man wished, And garner'd up their wisdom in my heart.
Hear then, and mark me well; for thou wilt see, I long have known the grief that weighs thee down.
The Viceroy hates thee, fain would injure thee, For thou hast cross'd his wish to bend the Swiss In homage to this upstart house of princes, And kept them staunch, like their good sires of old, In true allegiance to the Empire.Say, Is't not so, Werner? Tell me, am I wrong?
STAUFF.
'Tis even so.For this doth Gessler hate me.
GERT.
He burns with envy, too, to see thee living Happy and free on thine ancestral soil, For he is landless.From the Emperor's self Thou hold'st in fief the lands thy fathers left thee.
