There goes the cloister bailiff's bridal train Of Morlischachen. A rich fellow he!

And has some half score pastures on the Alps.

He goes to fetch his bride from Imisee.

At Kussnacht there will be high feast tonight.

Come with us--ev'ry honest man is asked.

TELL.

A gloomy guest fits not a wedding feast.

STUSSI.

If you've a trouble, dash it from your heart!

Take what Heaven sends! The times are heavy now, And we must s.n.a.t.c.h at pleasure as it flies.

Here 'tis a bridal, there a burial.

TELL.

And oft the one close on the other treads.

STUSSI.

So runs the world we live in. Everywhere Mischance befalls and misery enough.

In Glarus there has been a landslip, and A whole side of the Glarnisch has fallen in.

TELL.

How! Do the very hills begin to quake?

There is stability for naught on earth.

STUSSI.

Of strange things, too, we hear from other parts.

I spoke with one but now, from Baden come, Who said a knight was on his way to court, And, as he rode along, a swarm of wasps Surrounded him, and settling on his horse, So fiercely stung the beast, that it fell dead, And he proceeded to the court on foot.

TELL.

The weak are also furnish'd with a sting.

ARMGART (_enters with several children, and places herself at the entrance of the pa.s.s_).

STUSSI.

'Tis thought to bode disaster to the land-- Some horrid deeds against the course of nature.

TELL.

Why, every day brings forth such fearful deeds; There needs no prodigy to herald them.

STUSSI.

Ay, happy he, who tills his field in peace, And sits at home untroubled with his kin.

TELL.

The very meekest cannot be at peace If his ill neighbor will not let him rest.

[TELL _looks frequently with restless expectation toward the top of the pa.s.s_.]

STUSSI.

So fare you well! You're waiting someone here?

TELL.

I am.

STUSSI.

G.o.d speed you safely to your home!

You are from Uri, are you not? His grace The governor's expected thence today.

TRAVELER (_entering_).

Look not to see the governor today.

The streams are flooded by the heavy rains, And all the bridges have been swept away.

[TELL _rises_.]

ARMGART (_coming forward_).

Gessler not coming?

STUSSI.

Want you aught with him?

ARMGART.

Alas, I do!

STUSSI.

Why then, thus place yourself Where you obstruct his pa.s.sage down the pa.s.s?

ARMGART.

Here he cannot escape me. He _must_ hear me.

FRIESSHARDT (_coming hastily down the pa.s.s and calls upon the stage_).