s of
his entire family would be lost if Gessler lived, for the Governor
would certainly send soldiers to take and slay him. So Tell resolved to
slay the governor with the same crossbow with which he had shot the
apple from his son's head.

He waited in the woods on the edge of a ravine through which Gessler
must pass on the way to his castle at Kussnacht, for no other way led
there; and when the Governor's escort finally appeared, Tell aimed his
bow, the arrow hissed from the string and imbedded itself squarely in
Gessler's heart. The deed was accomplished surely and with skill, and
the Swiss would suffer no more from the heavy hand of the tyrant
Gessler.

This act rang through Switzerland, and everywhere people were soon in
revolt against the power of Austria. And the ultimate result of the
action of William Tell was in the end the freedom of the Swiss people
from the oppression of Austria. And throughout Switzerland the name of
William Tell is revered to this day and there are statues in his honor,
while many a legend has been born in his name and many a great writer
has celebrated his deeds.

CHAPTER XXXIII

DON QUIXOTE

In the year 1605 a Spanish author named Cervantes wrote the story of a
lean and elderly gentleman named Don Quixote who had the strangest
attack of madness in the world. For this Don Quixote, who lived in La
Mancha in Spain, lost his mind through reading books of chivalry, and
he so stuffed his poor weak brain with preposterous tales of knights
and giants that at last he thought he must take horse and armor and
ride through Spain righting wrongs and doing battle with all that
opposed him.

Now this fancy of Don Quixote's was just as ridiculous as it would be
to-day to go in search of Indians upon the streets of New York or other
American cities,--for at the time when he lived there were no knights,
nor had there been any for a great many years. The people were honest
peasants and burghers who made their living much in the fashion that we
do to-day, and had forgotten all about the idle tales of dragons and of
knights that rode armed through the forests. But none the less Don
Quixote had so addled his mind with stories of bygone times that he
must needs become a knight without any delay.

In the attic of his house he found an old suit of rusty armor that had
belonged to his grandfather, and he scoured this until it shone like
silver. He found a helmet too, and as only part of it remai