MELCHTHAL.
Impossible! How came you by the news?
STAUFFACHER.
"Tis true! Near Bruck, by the a.s.sa.s.sin"s hand, King Albert fell. A most trustworthy man, John Mueller, from Schaffhausen, brought the news.
FURST.
Who dared commit so horrible a deed?
STAUFFACHER.
The doer makes the deed more dreadful still; It was his nephew, his own brother"s child, Duke John of Austria, who struck the blow.
MELCHTHAL.
What drove him to so dire a parricide?
STAUFFACHER.
The emperor kept his patrimony back, Despite his urgent importunities; "Twas said, indeed, he never meant to give it, But 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 n.o.ble 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, how compa.s.sed he the dreadful deed?
STAUFFACHER.
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 reached the ferry of the Reuss, The a.s.sa.s.sins forced their way into the boat, To separate the emperor from his suite.
His highness landed, and was riding on Across a fresh-ploughed field--where once, they say, A mighty city stood in Pagan times-- With Hapsburg"s ancient turrets full in sight, Where all the grandeur of his line had birth-- When Duke John plunged a dagger in his throat, Palm ran him through the body with his lance, Eschenbach cleft his skull at one fell blow, And down he sank, all weltering in his blood, On his own soil, by his own kinsmen slain.
Those on the opposite bank, who saw the deed, Being parted by the stream, could only raise An unavailing cry of loud lament.
But a poor woman, sitting by the way, Raised him, and on her breast he bled to death.
MELCHTHAL.
Thus has he dug his own untimely grave, Who sought insatiably to grasp at all.
STAUFFACHER.
The country round is filled with dire alarm.
The mountain pa.s.ses are blockaded all, And sentinels on every frontier set; E"en ancient Zurich barricades her gates, That for these thirty years have open stood, Dreading the murderers, and the avengers more, For cruel Agnes comes, the Hungarian queen, To all her s.e.x"s tenderness a stranger, Armed with the thunders of the church to wreak Dire vengeance for her parent"s royal blood, On the whole race of those that murdered him,-- Upon their servants, children, children"s children,-- Nay on the stones that build 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.
MELCHTHAL.
Know you which way the murderers have fled?
STAUFFACHER.
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 wandering in the mountains.
FURST.
And thus their crime has yielded them no fruits.
Revenge is barren. Of itself it makes The dreadful food it feeds on; its delight Is murder--its satiety despair.
STAUFFACHER.
The a.s.sa.s.sins reap no profit by their crime; But we shall pluck with unpolluted hands The teeming fruits of their most b.l.o.o.d.y deed, For we are ransomed from our heaviest fear; The direst foe of liberty has fallen, And, "tis reported, that the crown will pa.s.s From Hapsburg"s house into another line.
The empire is determined to a.s.sert Its old prerogative of choice, I hear.
FURST and several others.
Has any one been named to you?
STAUFFACHER.
The Count Of Luxembourg is widely named already.
FURST.
"Tis well we stood so stanchly by the empire!
Now we may hope for justice, and with cause.
STAUFFACHER.
The emperor will need some valiant friends, And he will shelter us from Austria"s vengeance.
[The peasantry embrace. Enter SACRIST, with imperial messenger.
SACRIST.
Here are the worthy chiefs of Switzerland!
ROSSELMANN and several others.
Sacrist, what news?
SACRISTAN.
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 (reads).
"In the great grief and doleful widowhood, In which the b.l.o.o.d.y exit of her lord Has plunged her majesty, she still remembers The ancient faith and love of Switzerland."
MELCHTHAL.
She ne"er did that in her prosperity.
ROSSELMANN.
Hush, let us hear.
FURST (reads).
"And she is well a.s.sured, Her people will in due abhorrence hold The perpetrators of this d.a.m.ned deed.
On the three Cantons, therefore, she relies, That they in nowise lend the murderers aid; But rather, that they loyally a.s.sist To give them up to the avenger"s hand, Remembering the love and grace which they Of old received from Rudolph"s princely house."
[Symptoms of dissatisfaction among the peasantry.