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Updated: May 16, 2025
RUDENZ. When we have set the country free, we'll place Our fresh, victorious wreaths upon his bier. Oh, my dear friends, 'tis not your cause alone! I have a cause to battle with the tyrants That more concerns myself. Know, that my Bertha Has disappeared, been carried off by stealth, Stolen from amongst us by their ruffian bands!
And they parted, each to sound his friends, appointing as a place of conference the Rütli. There, in the stillness of night, they often met together for council touching the work which was to be done; thither by lonely paths came Fürst and Melchthal, Stauffacher in his boat, and from Unterwalden his sister's son, Edelknecht of Rudenz.
BERTHA. He follows me. Now to explain myself! At length, dear lady, we have met alone In this wild dell, with rocks on every side, No jealous eye can watch our interview. Now let my heart throw off this weary silence. BERTHA. But are you sure they will not follow us? RUDENZ. See, yonder goes the chase. Now, then, or never!
It fits their humor well, to take their seats Amid the nobles on the Herrenbank; They'll have the Caesar for their lord, forsooth, That is to say, they'll have no lord at all. ATTINGHAUSEN. Must I hear this, and from thy lips, rash boy! RUDENZ. You urged me to this answer. Hear me out. What, uncle, is the character you've stooped To fill contentedly through life?
Ah! what had been my fate, Had I been forced to follow some proud lord, Some ruthless despot, to his gloomy castle! Here are no castles, here no bastioned walls Divide me from a people I can bless. RUDENZ. Yet, how to free myself; to loose the coils Which I have madly twined around my head? BERTHA. Tear them asunder with a man's resolve. Whatever the event, stand by the people.
Thy power is rooted deep and strongly here, But in yon stranger world thou'lt stand alone, A trembling reed beat down by every blast. Oh come! 'tis long since we have seen thee, Uly! Tarry but this one day. Only to-day Go not to Altdorf. Wilt thou? Not to-day! For this one day bestow thee on thy friends. RUDENZ. I gave my word. Unhand me! I am bound. Bound, didst thou say?
BERTHA. Bondage, rather! You would drive freedom from the last stronghold That yet remains for her upon the earth. The people know their own true interests better: Their simple natures are not warped by show, But round your head a tangling net is wound. RUDENZ. Bertha, you hate me you despise me! BERTHA. Nay! And if I did, 'twere better for my peace.
Scarce had we driven the foe Forth from the keep, and given it to the flames, That now rose crackling upwards to the skies, When from the blaze rushed Diethelm, Gessler's page, Exclaiming, "Lady Bertha will be burnt!" FURST. Good heavens! MELCHTHAL. 'Twas she herself. Here had she been Immured in secret by the viceroy's orders. Rudenz sprang up in frenzy.
Three actions that have no necessary connection with one another the conspiracy of the cantons, the private feud of Tell and Gessler, and the love-affair of Rudenz and Bertha are carried along together in such a way that all find their natural conclusion in the final celebration of victory.
Already Tell has fallen a sacrifice To your delay. STAUFFACHER. We swore to wait till Christmas. RUDENZ. I was not there, I did not take the oath. If you delay I will not! MELCHTHAL. What! You would RUDENZ. I count me now among the country's fathers, And to protect you is my foremost duty. FURST. Within the earth to lay these dear remains, That is your nearest and most sacred duty.
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