ning forward_).

The slater's fallen from the roof.

BERTHA (_rushing in_).

Heavens! Is he dashed to pieces? Save him, help!
If help be possible, save him! Here is gold.

[_Throws her trinkets among the people_.]

MASON.

Hence with your gold--your universal charm,
And remedy for ill! When you have torn
Fathers from children, husbands from their wives,
And scattered woe and wail throughout the land,
You think with gold to compensate for all.
Hence! Till we saw you, we were happy men;
With you came misery and dark despair.

BERTHA (_to the_ TASKMASTER, _who has returned_).

Lives he?

[TASKMASTER _shakes his head_.]

Ill-omened towers, with curses built,
And doomed with curses to be tenanted!

[_Exit_.]

SCENE IV

_The house of_ WALTER FUeRST. WALTER FUeRST _and_ ARNOLD VON
MELCHTHAL _enter simultaneously at different sides_.

MELCH.

Good Walter Fuerst

FUeRST.

If we should be surprised!
Stay where you are. We are beset with spies.

MELCH.

Have you no news for me from Unterwald?
What of my father? 'Tis not to be borne
Thus to be pent up like a felon here!
What have I done so heinous that I must
Skulk here in hiding, like a murderer?
I only laid my staff across the fists
Of the pert varlet, when before my eyes,
By order of the governor, he tried
To drive away my handsome team of oxen.

FUeRST.

You are too rash by far. He did no more
Than what the governor had ordered him.
You had transgress'd, and therefore should have paid
The penalty, however hard, in silence.

MELCH.

Was I to brook the fellow's saucy gibe--
"That if the peasant must have bread to eat,
Why, let him go and draw the plough himself?"
It cut me to the very soul to see
My oxen, noble creatures, when the knave
Unyoked them from the plough. As though they felt
The wrong, they lowed and butted with their horns.
On this I could contain myself no longer,
And, overcome by passion, struck him down.

FUeRST.

O, we old men can scarce command ourselves!
And can we wonder youth breaks out of bounds?

MELCH.

I'm only sorry for my father's sake!
To be away from him, that needs so much
My fostering care! The governor detests him,
Because, whene'er occasion served, he has
Stood stoutly up for right and liberty.
Therefore they'll bear him hard--the poor old man!
And there is none to shield him from their grip.
Come what come may