MASTER MASON.
How! Do these flaming signals not suffice,
That blaze on every mountain top around?
RUODI.
Come all, fall to—come, men and women, all!
Destroy the scaffold! Tear the arches down!
Down with the walls; let not a stone remain.
MASTER MASON.
Come, comrades, come! We built it, and we know
How best to hurl it down.
ALL.
Come! Down with it!
[They fall upon the building at every side.
FURST.
The floodgate's burst. They're not to be restrained.
[Enter MELCHTHAL and BAUMGARTEN.
MELCHTHAL.
What! Stands the fortress still, when Sarnen lies
In ashes, and when Rossberg is a ruin?
FURST.
You, Melchthal, here? D'ye bring us liberty?
Say, have you freed the country of the foe?
MELCHTHAL.
We've swept them from the soil. Rejoice, my friend;
Now, at this very moment, while we speak,
There's not a tyrant left in Switzerland!