inder of his life in a dark dungeon. The people dared not interfere
with this harsh sentence; the guards were too many and too well armed.
Tell was seized, bound, and hurried to the lake-side, Gessler
accompanying.

The water reached, he was placed in a boat, his cross-bow being also
brought and laid beside the steersman. As if with purpose to make sure
of the disposal of his threatening enemy, Gessler also entered the
boat, which was pushed off and rowed across the lake towards Brunnen,
from which place the prisoner was to be taken overland to the governor's
fortress.

Before they were half-way across the lake, however, a sudden and violent
storm arose, tossing the boat so frightfully that Gessler and all with
him were filled with mortal fear.

"My lord," cried one of the trembling rowers to the governor, "we will
all go to the bottom unless something is done, for there is not a man
among us fit to manage a boat in this storm. But Tell here is a skilful
boatman, and it would be wise to use him in our sore need."

"Can you bring us out of this peril?" asked Gessler, who was no less
alarmed than his crew. "If you can, I will release you from your bonds."

"I trust, with God's help, that I can safely bring you ashore," answered
Tell.

By Gessler's order his bonds were then removed, and he stepped aft and
took the helm, guiding the boat through the storm with the skill of a
trained mariner. He had, however, another object in view, and had no
intention to let the tyrannical governor bind his free limbs again. He
bade the men to row carefully until they reached a certain rock, which
appeared on the lake-side at no great distance, telling them that he
hoped to land them behind its shelter. As they drew near the spot
indicated, he turned the helm so that the boat struck violently against
the rock, and then, seizing the cross-bow which lay beside him, he
sprang nimbly ashore, and thrust the boat with his foot back into the
tossing waves. The rock on which he landed is, says the chronicler,
still known as Tell's Rock, and a small chapel has been built upon it.

The story goes on to tell us that the governor and his rowers, after
great danger, finally succeeded in reaching the shore at Brunnen, at
which point they took horse and rode through the district of Schwyz,
their route leading through a narrow passage between the rocks, the only
way by which they could reach Kuessnach from that quarter. On they went,
the angry gov