Then a stillness on his spirit fell, Before th' unearthly train, For he knew Valhalla's daughters well, And a sudden rising breeze Bore across the moaning seas “There are songs in Odin's Hall, "At the feast and in the song, "Regner! tell thy fair-hair'd bride "Lo! the mighty sun looks forth-- There was arming heard on land and wave, When afar the sunlight spread, And the phantom forms of the tide-worn cave With the mists of morning fled. But at eve, the kingly hand Of the battle-axe and brand, Lay cold on a pile of dead! THE CAVERN OF THE THREE TELLS. SWISS TRADITION. The three founders of the Helvetic confederacy are thought to sleep in a cavern near the Lake of Lucerne. The herdsmen call them the Three Tells; and say that they lie there in their antique garb, in quiet slumber; and when Switzerland is in her utmost need, they will awaken and regain the liberties of the land. See Quarterly Review, No. 44. The Grütli, where the confederates held their nightly meetings, is a meadow on the shore of the Lake of Lucerne, or Lake of the Forest-cantons, here called the Forest-sea. OH! enter not yon shadowy cave, Seek not the bright spars there, Though the whispering pines that o'er it wave, With freshness fill the air: For there the Patriot Three, In the garb of old array'd, By their native Forest-sea On a rocky couch are laid. The Patriot Three that met of yore Beneath the midnight sky, And leagued their hearts on the Grütli shore, In the name of liberty! Now silently they sleep Amidst the hills they freed; But their rest is only deep, Till their country's hour of need. They start not at the hunter's call, Nor the Lammer-geyer's cry, Nor the rush of a sudden torrent's fall, And the Alpine herdsman's lay, To a Switzer's heart so dear! On the wild wind floats away, No more for them to hear. But when the battle-horn is blown Till the Schreckhorn's peaks reply, When the Jungfrau's cliffs send back the tone Through their eagles' lonely sky; When spear-heads light the lakes, When Uri's beechen woods wave red With a leap, like Tell's proud leap, When away the helm he flung,* From the flashing billow sprung! They shall wake beside their Forest-sea, When they link'd the hands that made us free, And their voices shall be heard, And be answer'd with a shout, Till the echoing Alps are stirr'd, And the signal-fires blaze out. * The point of rock on which Tell leaped from the boat of Gessler is marked by a chapel, and called the Tellensprung. |