GES. Take it as it is: Thy skill will be the greater if thou hit'st it. TELL. True - true! I did not think of that-I wonder I did not think of that - Give me some chance 5 To save my boy! [Throws away the apple with all his force.] I will not murder him, 10 If I can help it—for the honor of The form thou wearest, if all the heart is gone. TELL. Have I a friend among the lookers on? He is a friend runs out into a storm To shake a hand with us. I must be brief: 15 When once the bow is bent, we cannot take The shot too soon. Verner, whatever be The issue of this hour, the common cause Must not stand still. Let not to-morrow's sun Set on the tyrant's banner! Verner! Verner! 20 The boy! the boy! Thinkest thou he hath the courage VER. He bears himself so much above his years TELL. I know!-I know. VER. With constancy so modest ! TELL. I was sure he would VER. And looks with such relying love And reverence upon you. TELL. Man! Man! Man! No more! Already I'm too much the father 5 To act the man! - Verner, no more, my friend! I would be flint-flint. flint. Don't make me feel do not mind me! - Take the boy I'm not And set him, Verner, with his back to me. Set him upon his knees and place this apple 10 Upon his head, so that the stem may front me, 15 Thus, Verner; charge him to keep steady — tell him More briefly than I tell it thee. VER. Come, Albert! [Leading him out.] ALB. May I not speak with him before I go? TELL. My boy! ALB. My father! 25 [Holding out his arms to him.] [Rushing into Tell's arms.] - Go, now, TELL. If thou canst bear it, should not I? My son - and keep in mind that I can shoot God bless thee- - Thou - No, Thou wilt not fail thy master, wilt thou? GES. Give him a single arrow. TELL. Do you shoot? SOL. I do. 5 TELL. Is it so you pick an arrow, friend? The point, you see, is bent; the feather jagged: [Breaks it.] GES. Let him have another. TELL. Why, 't is better than the first, As I'm to take't is heavy in the shaft: I'll not shoot with it! [Throws it away.] Let me see my quiver. Bring it! 'Tis not one arrow in a dozen - 10 I'd take to shoot with at a dove, much less [Tell here hides an arrow under his vest.] TELL. I'm ready, too! Keep silent for Heaven's sake, and do not stir Your prayers your prayers · and let me have and be my witnesses That if his life's in peril from my hand, 20 'T is only for the chance of saving it. 25 GES. Go on. TELL. I will. O friends, for mercy's sake, keep motionless [To the people.] [Tell shoots VER. [Rushing in with Albert.] The boy is safe-no ALB. Father, I'm safe!—your Albert's safe, dear [Albert opens his father's vest, and the arrow drops. Tell starts, fixes his eye on Albert, and clasps him TELL. To kill thee, tyrant, had I slain my boy! C. LOSS OF UNION IRREPARABLE. WEBSTER. [From a eulogy on Washington, delivered at a public dinner in the city of Washington, in honor of his centennial birthday, February 22, 1832.] WASHINGTON, therefore, could regard, and did regard, nothing as of paramount political interest, but the integrity of the Union itself. With a united government, well administered, he saw we had nothing to fear; and without 5 it, nothing to hope. The sentiment is just, and its momentous truth should solemnly impress the whole country. If we might regard our country as personated in the spirit of Washington, if we might consider him as representing her, in her past renown, her present prosperity, and her 10 future career, and as in that character demanding of us all to account for our conduct, as political men or as private citizens, how should he answer him who has ventured to talk of disunion and dismemberment? Or how should he answer him who dwells perpetually on local interests, and fans every kindling flame of local prejudice? How should 5 he answer him who would array state against state, interest against interest, and party against party, careless of the continuance of that unity of government which constitutes us one people? Gentlemen, the political prosperity which this country has attained, and which it now enjoys, it has acquired mainly through the instrumentality of the present government. While this agent continues, the capacity of attaining to still higher degrees of prosperity exists also. We 10 have, while this lasts, a political life capable of beneficial exertion, with power to resist or overcome misfortunes, to sustain us against the ordinary accidents of human affairs, and to promote, by active efforts, every public interest. But dismemberment strikes at the very being which pre15 serves these faculties. It would lay its rude and ruthless hand on this great agent itself. It would sweep away, not only what we possess, but all power of regaining lost, or acquiring new, possessions. It would leave the country, not only bereft of its prosperity and happiness, but 20 without limbs, or organs, or faculties, by which to exert itself hereafter in the pursuit of that prosperity and happiness. Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects overcome. If disastrous war should sweep our commerce from 25 the ocean, another generation may renew it; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish it; if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will grow green again, and ripen to future harvests. It were but a trifle even if the walls of yonder 30 Capitol were to crumble, if its lofty pillars should fall, and its gorgeous decorations be all covered by the dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished government ? Who shall real 35 again the well proportioned columns of constitutional liberty? Who shall frame together the skilful architecture |