secluded mountain spot
called Rutli. There they bound themselves by an oath, the terms of
which embodied their purpose: "We swear in the presence of God, before
whom kings and people are equal, to live or die for our
fellow-countrymen; to undertake and sustain all in common; neither to
suffer injustice nor to commit injury; to respect the rights and
property of the Count of Hapsburg; to do no violence to the imperial
bailiffs, but to put an end to their tyranny." They fixed upon January
1, 1308, as the day for a general uprising.

Events were gradually shaping themselves for the appearance of William
Tell on the scene. Up to this time his name does not appear in the
annals of his country. The bold peasant of Uri was so little prominent
among his countrymen that, according to some versions of the legend,
although a son-in-law of Walter Furst, he had not been chosen among the
thirty conspirators summoned to the meeting at Rutli. This, however, is
contradicted by another, which asserts that he was "one of the
oath-bound men of Rutli."

The various divergences in the different versions of the legend do not
affect its main features, on which all the chroniclers are agreed. It
was the crowning insult to his country which indisputably brought Tell
into prominence and made his name forever famous.

Gessler's hatred of the people daily increased, and was constantly
showing itself in every form of petty tyranny that a mean and wicked
nature could devise. He noticed the growing discontent among the
peasantry, but instead of trying to allay it, he determined to
humiliate them still more. For this purpose he had a pole, surmounted
by the ducal cap of Austria, erected in the market square of the
village of Altdorf, and issued a command that all who passed it should
bow before the symbol of imperial rule. Guards were placed by the pole
with orders to make prisoners of all who refused to pay homage to the
ducal cap.

William Tell, a bold hunter and skillful boatman of Uri, passing by one
day, with his little son, Walter, refused to bend his knee before the
symbol of foreign oppression. He was seized at once by the guards and
carried before the bailiff.

There is considerable contradiction at this point as to whether Tell
was at once carried before the bailiff or bound to the pole, where he
remained, guarded by the soldiers, until the bailiff, returning the
same day from a hunting expedition, appeared upon the scene. Schiller,
in