Page:The Forest Sanctuary.pdf/130

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LAYS OF MANY LANDS.



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.

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