SACRIS.
Here are the worthy chiefs of Switzerland!
ROSSEL. (and several others.)
Sacrist, what news?
SACRIS.
A courier brings this letter.
ALL (to Walter Furst).
Open and read it.
FURST (reading).
"To the worthy men Of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwald, the Queen
Elizabeth sends grace and all good wishes."
MANY VOICES.
What wants the queen with us? Her reign is done.
FURST (reading).
"In the great grief and doleful widowhood,
In which the bloody exit of her lord
Has plunged the queen, still in her mind she bears
The ancient faith and love of Switzerland."
MELCH.
She ne'er did that in her prosperity.
ROSSEL.
Hush, let us hear!
FURST (reading).
"And she is well assured,
Her people will in due abhorrence hold
The perpetrators of this damned deed.
On the three Cantons, therefore, she relies,
That they in nowise lend the murderers aid;
But rather, that they loyally assist,
To give them up to the avenger's hand,
Remembering the love and grace which they
Of old received from Rudolph's royal house."