STUSSI.
Stay, speak—
FRIESS.
I can't—must to the castle haste,
And tell them, that the Governor's at hand.
[Exit.]
STUSSI.
If honest men, now, had been in the ship,
It had gone down with every soul on board:
Some folks are proof 'gainst fire and water both.
[Looking round.]
Where has the huntsman gone with whom I spoke?
[Exit.]
[Enter Gessler and Rudolph der Harras on horseback.]
GESSL.
Say what you will; I am the Emperor's liege,
And how to please him my first thought must be.
He did not send me here to fawn and cringe,
And coax these boors into good humour. No!
Obedience he must have. The struggle's this:
Is king or peasant to be sovereign here?
ARM.
Now is the moment! Now for my petition!