Wilhelm Tell Part 31

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, hus.h.!.+ 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 pa.s.sed 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 n.o.ble 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 n.o.bles parties to this league?

STAUFFACHER.

We trust to their a.s.sistance 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 n.o.bles' 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.