Schiller wrote Die Bürgschaft in the summer of 1798, and it was first published in the Musenalmanach of 1799. Möros is sentenced to death for plotting against the tyrant Dionys. He asks for three days to see his sister married, and his friend stays behind as his surety. On the way back, a flood, robbers and thirst delay him. A servant tells him to turn around and save his own life. He goes on, because the tyrant must not be able to boast daß der Freund dem Freunde gebrochen die Pflicht, that a friend broke his duty to a friend. He arrives as the execution begins and cries out: »Mich, Henker«, ruft er, »erwürget! / Da bin ich, für den er gebürget!« (Strangle me, executioner! Here I am, the one he stood surety for!) The tyrant gives in: Und die Treue, sie ist doch kein leerer Wahn. (Loyalty is not an empty illusion after all.)