Basis
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Each other recognize. Their hearts still know,
Ay, we are all one heart, one blood, one race.html">race!
ALL (joining hands).
The nations round us bear a foreign yoke;
Nay, even within our frontiers may be found
A race of bonded serfs from sire to son.
Have kept our freedom from the first till now,
Freely we sought protection of the empire.
ROSSELMANN.
'Tis so set down in emperor.html">emperor.html">emperor.html">emperor.html">Emperor Frederick's charter.
STAUFFACHER.
There must be still a chief, a judge supreme,
And therefore was it that our sires allowed
This honor to the emperor, the lord
And, like the other freemen of his realm,
And this alone should be the freeman's duty,
He's but a slave that would acknowledge more.
STAUFFACHER.
The imperial standard, and they fought its battles!
The Caesars' crown upon the emperor's head.
By their own laws and ancient usages.
The penalty of death; he therefore named
That had no stake or interest in the land.
And, in the face of day, pronounced decree,
What traces here, that we are bondsmen? Speak,
No! You have spoken but the simple truth;
Even to the emperor we refused obedience,
For when the Abbey of Einsiedlen claimed
And showed an ancient charter, which bestowed
For our existence there had been concealed--
No emperor can bestow what is our own:
We can, within our mountains, right ourselves!"
The shame and infamy of this new yoke,
Dared in the fulness of his power attempt?
By the hard labor of our hands; we've changed
Of savage bears, into a home for man;
To rise, distent with venom, from the swamps;
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