[Exit.]

[STAUFFACHER sits down sorrowfully upon a bench under the lime tree.  Gertrude, his wife, enters, and finds him in this posture.  She places herself near him, and looks at him for some time in silence.]

GERT.

So sad, my love!  I scarcely know thee now. 
For many a day in silence I have mark’d
A moody sorrow furrowing thy brow. 
Some silent grief is weighing on thy heart. 
Trust it to me.  I am thy faithful wife,
And I demand my half of all thy cares.

[STAUFFACHER gives her his hand and is silent.]

Tell me what can oppress thy spirits thus? 
Thy toil is blest—­the world goes well with thee—­
Our barns are full—­our cattle, many a score;
Our handsome team of well-fed horses, too,
Brought from the mountain pastures safely home,
To winter in their comfortable stalls. 
There stands thy house—­no nobleman’s more fair! 
’Tis newly built with timber of the best,
All grooved and fitted with the nicest skill;
Its many glistening windows tell of comfort! 
’Tis quarter’d o’er with scutcheons of all hues,
And proverbs sage, which passing travelers
Linger to read and ponder o’er their meaning.

STAUFF.

The house is strongly built, and handsomely,
But, ah! the ground on which we built it quakes.

GERT.

Tell me, dear Werner, what you mean by that?

STAUFF.

No later gone than yesterday, I sat
Beneath this linden, thinking with delight,
How fairly all was finished, when from Kuessnacht
The Viceroy and his men came riding by. 
Before this house he halted in surprise: 
At once I rose, and, as beseemed his rank,
Advanced respectfully to greet the lord
To whom the Emperor delegates his power,
As judge supreme within our Canton here. 
“Who is the owner of this house?” he asked,
With mischief in his thoughts, for well he knew. 
With prompt decision, thus I answered him: 
“The Emperor, your grace—­my lord and yours,
And held by me in fief.”  On this he answered,
“I am the Emperor’s vice-regent here,
And will not that each peasant churl should build
At his own pleasure, bearing him as freely
As though he were the master in the land. 
I shall make bold to put a stop to this!”
So saying, he, with menaces, rode off,
And left me musing with a heavy heart
On the fell purpose that his words betray’d.

GERT.

My own dear lord and husband!  Wilt thou take
A word of honest counsel from thy wife? 
I boast to be the noble Iberg’s child,
A man of wide experience.  Many a time,
As we sat spinning in the winter nights,
My sisters and myself, the people’s chiefs
Were wont to gather round our father’s hearth,
To read the old imperial charters, and
To hold sage converse on the country’s weal. 
Then heedfully I listened, marking well