s! I promised you your life
indeed. Your life you shall have, but you shall pass it in a dark and
lonely prison, where neither sun nor moon shall send the least glimmer
of light. There you shall lie, so that I may be safe from you. Ah,
my fine archer, your bows and arrows will be of little use to you
henceforth. Seize him, men, and bind him, lest he do murder even now."

In a moment the soldiers sprang forward, and Tell was seized and
bound.

As Gessler sat watching them, he looked round at all the angry faces
of the crowd. "Tell has too many friends here," he said to himself.
"If I imprison him in the Curb of Uri, they may find some way to help
him to escape. I will take him with me in my boat to Klissnacht. There
he can have no friends. There he will be quite safe." Then aloud he
said, "Follow me, my men. Bring him to the boat."

As he said these words, there was a loud murmur from the crowd. "That
is against the law," cried many voices.

"Law, law?" growled Gessler. "Who makes the law, you or I?"

Walter Fuerst had been standing among the crowd silent and anxious. Now
he stepped forward and spoke boldly. "My lord," he said, "it has ever
been a law among the Swiss that no one shall be imprisoned out of his
own canton. If my son-in-law, William Tell, has done wrong, let him be
tried and imprisoned here, in Uri, in Altorf. If you do otherwise you
wrong our ancient freedom and rights."

"Your freedom! your rights!" said Gessler roughly. "I tell you, you
are here to obey the laws, not to teach me how I shall rule." Then
turning his horse and calling out, "On, men, to the boat with him," he
rode towards the lake, where, at a little place called Fliielen, his
boat was waiting for him.

But Walter clung to his father, crying bitterly. Tell could not take
him in his arms to comfort him, for his hands were tied. But he bent
over him to kiss him, saying, "Little Walter, little Walter, be brave.
Go with thy grandfather and comfort thy mother."

So Tell was led to Gessler's boat, followed by the sorrowing people.
Their hearts were full of hot anger against the tyrant. Yet what could
they do? He was too strong for them.

Tell was roughly pushed into the boat, where he sat closely guarded on
either side by soldiers. His bow and arrows, which had been taken from
him, were thrown upon a bench beside the steersman.

Gessler took his seat. The boat started, and was soon out on the blue
water of the lake. As the people of Al