William Tell Told Again Part 10

"Take the helm, Tell," said Gessler, "and steer the ship through those rocks into the bay beyond, or instant death shall be your lot."

Without a word Tell took the helmsman's place, peering keenly into the cloud of foam before him. To right and to left he turned the vessel's head, and to right again, into the very heart of the spray. They were right among the rocks now, but the ship did not strike on them.

Quivering and pitching, she was hurried along, until of a sudden the spray-cloud was behind her, and in front the calm waters of the bay.

Gessler beckoned to the helmsman.

"Take the helm again," he said.

He pointed to Tell.

"Bind him," he said to the soldiers.

The soldiers advanced slowly, for they were loath to bind the man who had just saved them from destruction. But the Governor's orders must he obeyed, so they came towards Tell, carrying ropes with which to bind him.

Tell moved a step back. The ship was gliding past a lofty rock. It was such a rock as Tell had often climbed when hunting the chamois. He acted with the quickness of the hunter. s.n.a.t.c.hing up the bow and quiver which lay on the deck, he sprang on to the bulwark of the vessel, and, with a mighty leap, gained the rock. Another instant, and he was out of reach.

Gessler roared to his bowmen.

"Shoot! shoot!" he cried.

The bowmen hastily fitted arrow to string. They were too late. Tell was ready before them. There was a hiss as the shaft rushed through the air, and the next moment Gessler the Governor fell dead on the deck, pierced through the heart.

Tell's second arrow had found its mark, as his first had done.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XV]

CHAPTER XV

There is not much more of the story of William Tell. The death of Gessler was a signal to the Swiss to rise in revolt, and soon the whole country was up in arms against the Austrians. It had been chiefly the fear of the Governor that had prevented a rising before. It had been brewing for a long time. The people had been bound by a solemn oath to drive the enemy out of the country. All through Switzerland preparations for a revolution were going on, and n.o.bles and peasants had united.

Directly the news arrived that the Governor was slain, meetings of the people were held in every town in Switzerland, and it was resolved to begin the revolution without delay. All the fortresses that Gessler had built during his years of rule were carried by a.s.sault on the same night. The last to fall was one which had only been begun a short time back, and the people who had been forced to help to build it spent a very pleasant hour pulling down the stones which had cost them such labour to put in their place. Even the children helped. It was a great treat to them to break what they pleased without being told not to.

"See," said Tell, as he watched them, "in years to come, when these same children are gray-haired, they will remember this night as freshly as they will remember it to-morrow."

A number of people rushed up, bearing the pole which Gessler's soldiers had set up in the meadow. The hat was still on top of it, nailed to the wood by Tell's arrow.

"Here's the hat!" shouted Ruodi--"the hat to which we were to bow!"

"What shall we do with it?" cried several voices.

"Destroy it! Burn it!" said others. "To the flames with this emblem of tyranny!"

But Tell stopped them.

"Let us preserve it," he said. "Gessler set it up to be a means of enslaving the country; we will set it up as a memorial of our newly-gained liberty. n.o.bly is fulfilled the oath we swore to drive the tyrants from our land. Let the pole mark the spot where the revolution finished."

"But _is_ it finished?" said Arnold of Melchthal. "It is a nice point. When the Emperor of Austria hears that we have killed his friend Gessler, and burnt down all his fine new fortresses, will he not come here to seek revenge?"

"He will," said Tell. "And let him come. And let him bring all his mighty armies. We have driven out the enemy that was in our land. We will meet and drive away the enemy that comes from another country.

Switzerland is not easy to attack. There are but a few mountain pa.s.ses by which the foe can approach. We will stop these with our bodies. And one great strength we have: we are united. And united we need fear no foe."

"Hurrah!" shouted everybody.

"But who is this that approaches?" said Tell. "He seems excited.

Perhaps he brings news."

It was Rosselmann the pastor, and he brought stirring news.

"These are strange times in which we live," said Rosselmann, coming up.

"Why, what has happened?" cried everybody.

"Listen, and be amazed."

"Why, what's the matter?"

"The Emperor----"

"Yes?"

"The Emperor is dead."

"What! dead?"

"Dead!"

"Impossible! How came you by the news?"

"John Muller of Schaffhausen brought it. And he is a truthful man."

"But how did it happen?"

"As the Emperor rode from Stein to Baden the lords of Eschenbach and Tegerfelden, jealous, it is said, of his power, fell upon him with their spears. His bodyguard were on the other side of a stream--the Emperor had just crossed it--and could not come to his a.s.sistance. He died instantly."

By the death of the Emperor the revolution in Switzerland was enabled to proceed without check. The successor of the Emperor had too much to do in defending himself against the slayers of his father to think of attacking the Swiss, and by the time he was at leisure they were too strong to be attacked. So the Swiss became free.

As for William Tell, he retired to his home, and lived there very happily ever afterwards with his wife and his two sons, who in a few years became very nearly as skilful in the use of the cross-bow as their father.

EPILOGUE.