Page:The works of Frederick Schiller (IA worksoffrederick05schiiala).pdf/14

We go to the hills, but you'll see us again, When the cuckoo is calling, and wood-notes are gay,When flowerets are blooming in dingle and plain, And the brooks sparkle up in the sunshine of May.    Farewell, ye green meadows,     Farewell, sunny shore,    The herdsman must leave you,     The summer is o'er.

Chamois Hunter (appearing on the top of a cliff).

Second Variation of the Ranz des Vaches.

On the heights peals the thunder, and trembles the bridge,The huntsman bounds on by the dizzying ridge,    Undaunted he hies him     O'er lee-covered wild,    Where leaf never budded,     Nor spring ever smiled;And beneath him an ocean of mist, where his eyeNo longer the dwellings of man can espy;    Through the parting clouds only     The earth can be seen,    Far down 'neath the vapor     The meadows of green.

[A change comes over the landscape. A rumbling, cracking noise is heard among the mountains. Shadows of clouds sweep across the scene.

[Ruodi, the fisherman, comes out of his cottage. Werni, the huntsman, descends from the rocks. Kuoni, the shepherd, enters, with a milk-pail on his shoulders, followed by Seppi, his assistant.

Ruodi. Bestir thee, Jenni, haul the boat on the shore.
The grizzly Vale-king^[1] comes, the glaciers moan,
The lofty Mytenstein^[2] draws on his hood,
And from the Stormcleft chilly blows the wind;
The storm will burst before we are prepared.

1. The German in Thalvogt, Ruler of the Valley—the name given figuratively to a dense gray mist which the south wind sweeps into the valleys from the mountain tops. It is well known as the precursor of stormy weather.
2. A steep rock standing on the north of Rütli, and nearly opposite to Brumen.