Page:The Forest Sanctuary.pdf/131

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LAYS OF MANY LANDS.
125


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,
    Nor the Lauwine thundering by!

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;