RUDENZ. Away, ye idle phantoms of my folly! In mine own home I'll find my happiness. Here where the gladsome boy to manhood grew, Where every brook, and tree, and mountain peak, Teems with remembrances of happy hours, In mine own native land thou wilt be mine. Ah, I have ever loved it well, I feel How poor without it were all earthly joys. BERTHA. Where should we look for happiness on earth, If not in this dear land of innocence? Here, where old truth hath its familiar home, Where fraud and guile are strangers, envy ne'er Shall dim the sparkling fountain of our bliss, And ever bright the hours shall o'er us glide. There do I see thee, in true manly worth, The foremost of the free and of thy peers, Revered with homage pure and unconstrained, Wielding a power that kings might envy thee. RUDENZ. And thee I see, thy sex's crowning gem, With thy sweet woman grace and wakeful love, Building a heaven for me within my home, And, as the springtime scatters forth her flowers, Adorning with thy charms my path of life, And spreading joy and sunshine all around. BERTHA. And this it was, dear friend, that caused my grief, To see thee blast this life's supremest bliss, With thine own hand. 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. It is thy post by birth. [Hunting horns are heard in the distance. But hark! The chase! Farewell,--'tis needful we should part--away! Fight for thy land; thou lightest for thy love. One foe fills all our souls with dread; the blow That makes one free emancipates us all. [Exeunt severally. SCENE III. A meadow near Altdorf. Trees in the foreground. At the back of the stage a cap upon a pole. The prospect is bounded by the Bannberg, which is surmounted by a snow-capped mountain. FRIESSHARDT and LEUTHOLD on guard. FRIESSHARDT. We keep our watch in vain. There's not a soul Will pass and do obeisance to the cap. But yesterday the place swarmed like a fair; Now the whole green looks like a very desert, Since yonder scarecrow hung upon the pole. LEUTHHOLD. Only the vilest rabble show themselves, And wave their tattered caps in mockery at us. All honest citizens would sooner make A tedious circuit over half the town Than bend their backs before our master's cap.