[Takes his cap.]

HEDWIG.

Whither away?

TELL.

To Altdorf, to your father.

HEDWIG.

You have some dangerous enterprise in view? 
Confess!

TELL.

Why think you so?

HEDWIG.

Some scheme’s on foot
Against the governors.  There was a Diet
Held on the Rootli—­that I know—­and you
Are one of the confederacy, I’m sure.

TELL.

I was not there.  Yet will I not hold back,
Whene’er my country calls me to her aid.

HEDWIG.

Wherever danger is, will you be placed. 
On you, as ever, will the burden fall.

[ILLUSTRATION]

TELL.

Each man shall have the post that fits his powers.

HEDWIG.

You took—­ay, ’mid the thickest of the storm—­
The man of Unterwald across the lake. 
’Tis marvel you escaped.  Had you no thought
Of wife and children, then?

TELL.

Dear wife, I had;
And therefore saved the father for his children.

HEDWIG.

To brave the lake in all its wrath!  ’Twas not
To put your trust in God!  ’Twas tempting Him.

TELL.

Little will he that’s over cautious do.

HEDWIG.

Yes, you’ve a kind and helping hand for all
But be in straits, and who will lend you aid?

TELL.

God grant I ne’er may stand in need of it!

[Takes up his cross-bow and arrows.]

HEDWIG.

Why take your cross-bow with you? leave it here.

TELL.

I want my right hand, when I want my bow.

[The boys return.]

WALTER.

Where, father, are you going?

TELL.

To grand-dad, boy—­
To Altdorf.  Will you go?

WALTER.  Ay, that I will!

HEDWIG.

The Viceroy’s there just now.  Go not to Altdorf!

TELL.

He leaves today.

HEDWIG.

Then let him first be gone,
Cross not his path.—­You know he bears us grudge.

TELL.

His ill-will cannot greatly injure me. 
I do what’s right, and care for no man’s hate.

HEDWIG.

’Tis those who do what’s right, whom most he hates.

TELL.

Because he cannot reach them.  Me, I ween,
His knightship will be glad to leave in peace.

HEDWIG.

Ay!—­Are you sure of that?

TELL.

Not long ago,
As I was hunting through the wild ravines
Of Shechenthal, untrod by mortal foot—­
There, as I took my solitary way
Along a shelving ledge of rocks, where ’twas
Impossible to step on either side;
For high above rose, like a giant wall,
The precipice’s side, and far below
The Shechen thunder’d o’er its rifted bed;—­

[The boys press toward him, looking upon him with excited curiosity.]