So toil'd the huntsman Tell. His quivering dart, Prest by the bended bowstring, fears to part, Dreads the tremendous task, to graze but shun The tender temples of his infant son; As the loved youth (the tyrant's victim led) Bears the poised apple tottering on his head. The sullen father, with reverted eye, Now marks the satrap, now the bright-hair'd boy; His second shaft impatient lies, athirst To mend the expected error of the first, To pierce the monster, mid the insulted crowd, And steep the pangs of nature in his blood. Deep doubling tow'rd his breast, well poised and slow. Curve the strain'd horns of his indignant bow; His left arm straightens as the dexter bends, And his nerved knuckle with the gripe distends; Soft slides the reed back with the stiff drawn strand, Till the steel point has reacht his steady hand; Then to his keen fixt eye the shank he brings, Twangs the loud cord, the feather'd arrow sings. Picks off the pippin from the smiling boy, And Uri's rocks resound with shouts of joy. Soon by an equal dart the tyrant bleeds, The cantons league, the work of fate proceeds; Till Austria's titled hordes, with their own gore, Fat the fair fields they lorded long before; On Gothard's height while freedom first unfurl'd Her infant banner o'er the modern world. Bland, Moylan, Sheldon the long lines enforce With light-arm'd scouts, with solid squares of horse; And Knox from his full park to battle brings His brazen tubes, the last resort of kings. The long black rows in sullen silence wait, Their grim jaws gaping, soon to utter fate; When at his word the carbon clouds shall rise, And well aim'd thunders rock the shores and skies. Two foreign Youths had caught the splendent flame, To Fame's hard school the warm disciples came; To learn sage Liberty's unlesson'd lore, To brave the tempest on her war-beat shore, Prometheus like, to snatch a beam of day, And homeward bear the unscintillating ray, To pour new life on Europe's languid horde, Where millions crouch beneath one stupid lord. Tho Austria's keiser and the Russian czar To dungeons doom them, and with fetters mar, Fayette o'er Gaul's vast realm some light shall spread, Brave Kosciusko rear Sarmatia's head; From Garonne's bank to Duna's wintry skies, The morn shall move, and slumbering nations rise. And tho their despots quake with wild alarms, And lash and agonize the world to arms, Whelm for a while the untutor'd race in blood, And turn against themselves the raging flood; Yet shall the undying dawn, with silent pace, Reach over earth and every land embrace; Till Europe's well taught sons the boon shall share, And bless the labors of the imprison'd Pair.