I cannot lay my hands upon the books;
But by yon everlasting stars I swear,
Never to swerve from justice and the right.

[The two swords are placed before him, and a circle formed; Schwytz in the centre, Uri on his right, Unterwald on his left.]

REDING (resting on his battle sword).

Why, at the hour when spirits walk the earth,
Meet the three Cantons of the mountains here,
Upon the lake’s inhospitable shore? 
What may the purport be of this new league
We here contract beneath the starry heaven?

STAUFFACHER (entering the circle).

’Tis no new league that here we now contract;
But one our fathers framed, in ancient times,
We purpose to renew!  For know, confederates,
Though mountain ridge and lake divide our bounds,
And each Canton by its own laws is ruled,
Yet are we but one race, born of one blood,
And all are children of one common home.

WINK.

Is then the burden of our legends true,
That we came hither from a distant land? 
Oh, tell us what you know, that our new league
May reap fresh vigor from the leagues of old.

STAUFF.

Hear, then, what aged herdsmen tell.  There dwelt
A mighty people in the land that lies
Back to the north.  The scourge of famine came;
And in this strait ’twas publicly resolved
That each tenth man, on whom the lot might fall,
Should leave the country.  They obey’d—­and forth,
With loud lamentings, men and women went,
A mighty host; and to the south moved on,
Cutting their way through Germany by the sword,
Until they gained these pine-clad hills of ours;
Nor stopp’d they ever on their forward course,
Till at the shaggy dell they halted where
The Mueta flows through its luxuriant meads. 
No trace of human creature met their eye,
Save one poor hut upon the desert shore,
Where dwelt a lonely man, and kept the ferry. 
A tempest raged—­the lake rose mountains high
And barr’d their further progress.  Thereupon
They view’d the country—­found it rich in wood,
Discover’d goodly springs, and felt as they
Were in their own dear native land once more. 
Then they resolved to settle on the spot;
Erected there the ancient town of Schwytz;
And many a day of toil had they to clear
The tangled brake and forest’s spreading roots. 
Meanwhile their numbers grew, the soil became
Unequal to sustain them, and they cross’d
To the black mountain, far as Weissland, where,
Conceal’d behind eternal walls of ice,
Another people speak another tongue. 
They built the village of Stanz, beside the Kernwald;
The village Altdorf, in the vale of Reuss;
Yet, ever mindful of their parent stem,
The men of Schwytz, from all the stranger race
That since that time have settled in the land,
Each other recognize.  Their hearts still know,
And beat fraternally to kindred blood.