Wilhelm Tell [42]
chase shall ne'er be used again. HEDW. Oh, Tell! Tell! [Steps back, dropping his hand.] TELL. What alarms thee, dearest wife? HEDW. How--how dost thou return to me? This hand-- Dare I take hold of it? This hand--Oh, God! TELL (with firmness and animation). Has shielded you and set my country free; Freely I raise it in the face of Heaven. [Monk gives a sudden start--he looks at him.] Who is this friar here? HEDW. Ah, I forgot him; Speak thou with him; I shudder at his presence. MONK (stepping nearer). Are you the Tell who slew the Governor? TELL. Yes, I am he. I hide the fact from no man. MONK. And you are Tell! Ah! it is God's own hand, That hath conducted me beneath your roof. TELL (examining him closely). You are no monk. Who are you? MONK. You have slain The Governor, who did you wrong. I, too, Have slain a foe, who robb'd me of my rights. He was no less your enemy than mine. I've rid the land of him. TELL (drawing back). You are--oh, horror! In--children, children--in, without a word, Go, my dear wife! Go! Go! Unhappy man, You should be-- HEDW. Heav'ns, who is it? TELL. Do not ask. Away! away! the children must not hear it. Out of the house--away! You must not rest 'Neath the same roof with this unhappy man! HEDW. Alas! What is it? Come. [Exit with the children.] TELL (to the Monk). You are the Duke Of Austria--I know it. You have slain The Emperor, your uncle and liege lord. JOHN. He robb'd me of my patrimony. TELL. How! Slain him--your king, your uncle! And the earth Still bears you! And the sun still shines on you! JOHN. Tell, hear me; are you-- TELL. Reeking, with the blood Of him that was your Emperor, your kinsman, Dare you set foot within my spotless house, Dare to an honest man to show your face, And claim the rights of hospitality? JOHN. I hoped to find compassion at your hands. You took, like me, revenge upon your foe! TELL. Unhappy man! Dare you confound the crime Of blood-imbrued ambition with the act Forced on a father in mere self-defence? Had you to shield your children's darling heads, To guard your fireside's sanctuary--ward off The last, the direst doom from all you loved? To Heaven I raise my unpolluted hands, To curse your act and you! I have avenged That holy nature which you have profaned. I have no part with you. You murdered, I Have shielded all that was most dear to me. JOHN. You cast me off to comfortless despair! TELL. I shrink with horror while I talk with you. Hence, on the dread career you have begun! Cease to pollute the home of innocence! [John turns to depart.] JOHN. I cannot and I will not live this life! TELL. And yet my soul bleeds for you. Gracious Heaven, So young, of such a noble line, the grandson Of Rudolph, once my lord and Emperor, An outcast--murderer--standing at my door, The poor man's door--a suppliant, in despair! [Covers his face.] JOHN. If you have power to weep, oh let my fate Move your compassion--it is horrible! I am--say, rather was--a prince. I might Have been most happy, had I only curb'd The impatience of my passionate desires: But envy gnaw'd my heart--I saw the youth Of mine own cousin Leopold endow'd With honour, and enrich'd with broad domains, The while myself, of equal age with him, In abject slavish nonage was kept back. TELL. Unhappy man, your uncle knew you well, When from you land and subjects he withheld! You, by your mad and desperate act have set A fearful seal upon his wise resolve. Where are the bloody partners of your crime? JOHN. Where'er the avenging furies may have borne them; I have not seen them since the luckless deed. TELL. Know you the Empire's ban is out,--that you Are interdicted to your friends, and given An outlaw'd victim to your enemies! JOHN. Therefore I shun all public thoroughfares, And venture not to knock at any door-- I turn my footsteps to the wilds, and through The mountains roam, a terror to myself! From mine own self I shrink with horror back, If in a brook I see my ill-starr'd form! If you have pity or a human heart-- [Falls down before him.] TELL. Stand up, stand up! I say. JOHN. Not till you give Your hand in promise of