[Exit.]

SCENE IV

The house of WALTER FÜRST. WALTER FÜRST and ARNOLD VON MELCHTHAL enter simultaneously at different sides.

MELCH.

Good Walter Fürst

FÜRST.

If we should be surprised!
Stay where you are. We are beset with spies.

MELCH.

Have you no news for me from Unterwald?
What of my father? 'Tis not to be borne
Thus to be pent up like a felon here!
What have I done so heinous that I must
Skulk here in hiding, like a murderer?
I only laid my staff across the fists
Of the pert varlet, when before my eyes,
By order of the governor, he tried
To drive away my handsome team of oxen.

FÜRST.