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THE STORY OF WILLIAM TELL

[64] THE people of Switzerland were not always free and happy as they are to-day.
Many years ago a proud tyrant, whose name was Gessler, ruled over them, and
made their lot a bitter one indeed.
One day this tyrant set up a tall pole in the public square, and put his own cap on
the top of it; and then he gave orders that every man who came into the town
should bow down before it. But there was one man, named William Tell, who would
not do this. He stood up straight with folded arms, and laughed at the swinging cap.
He would not bow down to Gessler himself.
When Gessler heard of this, he was very angry. He was afraid that other men would
disobey, and that soon the whole country would rebel against him. So he made up
his mind to punish the bold man.
William Tell's home was among the mountains, and he was a famous hunter. No one
in all the land could shoot with bow and arrow so well as he. Gessler knew this, and
so he thought of a cruel plan to make the hunter's own skill bring him to grief. He
ordered that Tell's little boy should be made to stand up in the public square with an
apple on his head; and then he bade Tell shoot the apple with one of his arrows.
[65] Tell begged the tyrant not to have him make this test of his skill. What if the
boy should move? What if the bowman's hand should tremble? What if the arrow
should not carry true?

"Will you make me kill my boy?" he said.


"Say no more," said Gessler. "You must hit the apple with your one arrow. If you fail,
my soldiers shall kill the boy before your eyes."
[66] Then, without another word, Tell fitted the arrow to his bow. He took aim, and
let it fly. The boy stood firm and still. He was not afraid, for he had all faith in his
father's skill.
The arrow whistled through the air. It struck the apple fairly in the center, and
carried it away. The people who saw it shouted with joy.
As Tell was turning away from the place, an arrow which he had hidden under his
coat dropped to the ground.
"Fellow!" cried Gessler, "what mean you with this second arrow?"
"Tyrant!" was Tell's proud answer, "this arrow was for your heart if I had hurt my
child."
And there is an old story, that, not long after this, Tell did shoot the tyrant with one
of his arrows; and thus he set his country free.
Plot Synopsis

The fateful enmity of the tyrant Gessler, Governor of the Swiss cantons, and William Tell, an obscure
huntsman, begins during a tempest on Lake Lucerne when Tell braves the angry waves to row to
safety a peasant who is pursued by the Governor's horsemen. "The lake may take pity on him; but
the Governor, never," says Tell.

His opinion of the bloodthirsty Gessler is shared increasingly by the peasantry as the oppressor fills
the old jails, builds a huge new prison at Altdorf for more victims, and sets his cap upon a pole
before it, commanding that all who pass must bow to it or pay the penalty of death. Public anger is
fanned into rebellion when Gessler blinds an aged man for a trifling misdemeanor. Tell, the
individualist, holds aloof from the rebels' councils, but promises his aid when needed.

A friend of the peasants is the aged Baron of Attinghausen, but his nephew and heir, Ulrich of
Rudenz, fascinated by the splendor of Gessler's court and love for Bertha, the Governor's ward, is
allied with the tyrant. The Baron warns Ulrich that Bertha is being used only to bait him, and that the
freedom-loving people will prevail in the end, but the youth goes to join Gessler. While they are
together hunting, however, Bertha reveals that she will love him only if he joins in the fight to liberate
his own people from Gessler's grip.

Tell prepares to pay a promised visit to his father-in-law, a leader of the rebels, and his wife, fearful
that the Governor counts him as an enemy, asks him in vain to postpone the trip. Tell insists that he
has nothing to fear, and sets off with his crossbow, accompanied by Walter, his son. They pass the
prison where Tell, failing to salute the Governor's cap, is seized by a guardsman. Several peasants
are trying to rescue him when the Governor's hunting party rides up and Gessler demands an
explanation from the huntsman. Tell declares his failure to salute was an oversight, and the
Governor remarks that he has heard that Tell is a master of the bow. Walter boasts: "Yes, my lord!
My father can hit an apple at a hundred yards!" Says Gessler: "Very well, you shall prove your skill
now. Shoot an apple from the boy's head. If you miss, your own head shall pay the forfeit."

The spectators are horrified. Tell falls upon his knees, imploring Gessler to withdraw so barbarous a
command. He bares his own breast, but the Governor laughs and says: "It is not your life I want, but
the shotthe proof of your skill." The boy speaks up: "Shoot, Father! Don't be afraid. I promise to
stand still." Tell removes two arrows from his quiver, puts one in his belt, takes aim and sends the
other on its way. The boy remains standing. Walter runs to his father, crying: "Here's the apple,
Father! I knew you'd never hit me!"

Tell falls upon his knees to embrace his son, but Gessler has not finished with him. "A word with you,
Tell," he commands. "I saw you place a second arrow on your belt ... what was the object?" Tell
answers: "If the first arrow had struck my child, the second would have gone through your heart."

For this answer, Gessler orders him bound and taken to the prison at Kssnacht for his threat; but a
great storm comes up which proves to be the huntsman's salvation. Since he alone can take the
boat through the gale, his guards release his bonds and Tell steers to a shelving ledge, leaps out,
and with his foot thrusts his captors' boat back into the waves. Now, he tells a fisherman, he is
planning "a deed that will be in everybody's mouth!"

Meanwhile, Bertha has been borne off by Gessler's men. Ulrich, who earlier had condemned his
master for Tell's ordeal and had declared that to keep silent longer would be treason to his country
and his King, has gone over wholly to the side of his people. But he returns too late to find the old
Baron of Attinghausen alive; his uncle has died with this injunction to the peasants: "The day of the
nobles is passing. The new day of the people is at hand ... the flower of chivalry is cut down, but
freedom waves her conquering flag on high.... Hold fast together, menhold forever fast.... Be one
be onebe one----"

Ulrich rallies the peasants and is acclaimed their leader. He directs that they arm and wait for a fiery
signal on the mountain tops, then swoop down upon the tyrant. A more ominous figure in the revolt,
however, is hidden upon the brow of a hill overlooking a road. Tell, with his crossbow ready in his
hand, awaits Gessler, who is expected to enter the pass below. Gessler soon appears with his
retinue. His way is barred by Armgart, a peasant woman, and her seven children. She cries to the
Governor: "Mercy, my lord! Pardon!... Pardon!... My husband lies in prison. My children cry for bread.
Pity, my lord, have pity on me!"

Gessler shouts: "Step aside or, by Heaven, I'll ride you down!" Armgart throws herself and her
children before the horses, crying out: "Very well, then ride us down." Gessler shouts: "I've been too
mild a ruler to these people. From now on, I must change. I will proclaim a new law throughout the
land. I will----"

The sentence is never finished; an arrow pierces his body. Clutching his breast, Gessler cries: "It is
William Tell's work!... O Lord, have mercy on my soul!" Armgart rejoices: "Dead, dead! He reels, he
falls!... Look, children! This is how a tyrant dies!"

The shaft that killed Gessler ignites the signal fires of revolution, and at daybreak peasants and
workingmen are tearing down the prisons. In one they find Bertha; they rescue her just as burning
timbers are about to fall on her. The liberated peasants, with Ulrich and Bertha among them, now
throng Tell's home with the cry: "Long live William Tell, our shield and saviour!" Bertha, greeting the
commoners as comrades, asks to be accepted into their League of Freedom. Her request is granted
and she gives her hand to Ulrich. He proclaims: "And from this moment all my serfs are free!"

But soon word comes that Albert, the Emperor of Austria, has been assassinated by his own nephew
John. One day, Tell's wife receives a visitor at their cottage; it is presumably a monk, but Tell soon
recognizes him as John in disguise, fleeing his would-be captors. John, knowing that Tell has killed
Gessler, expects approving words from the archer, who, instead, denounces his crime.
Nevertheless, Tell helps John flee, on the condition that John expiate his crime as soon as possible.

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