Gessler was too void of sensibility to understand the meaning of the glance, which was darted on him by Tell’s piercing eye. He only smiled contemptuously at having compelled the pride of this great mind to stoop itself to his orders, when he saw him press the lovely laughing child, his latest-born, to his heart with passion, and then bear him in his arms to the tree, where he was destined to take his stand. The apple, which was the nominal mark for that arrow, whose point Gessler hoped to see crimsoned with human blood, was fixed on the child’s head by the hands of the unhappy father.
Gessler’s attendants prepared to bind the innocent creature to the tree; but a spark of paternal spirit already burned in the soul of the son.
—“I am an Helvetian!” cried he with boyish eagerness; “I am not afraid of death, but of bonds: why, if my father really wanted to kill me, do you think I would run away?”—
All withdrew from the place, where Death’s intended victim stood calm and sweetly-smiling, like a second Isaac. The multitude, agonized with terror, could scarcely be heard to breathe: Tell had already taken his station. All were still, all dreading, lest the father’s hand, rendered trembling and uncertain by anxiety for his darling, should for the first time miss the mark; when the arrow whistled through the air, and fixed itself in the apple just above the crown of the child’s head, who saw it coming towards him, and smiled as he marked its flight.
Now then all rushed, eagerly to learn the event of this awful scene. Some exclaimed—“He is fallen! he is fallen!”—But the boy had only stooped to pick up the apple which the force of the blow had struck from his head; and he now presented it to his father, who had flown to embrace his rescued darling with speed scarce inferior to that of his arrow.
—“I was certain, father,” cried the child, as he hung round the neck of the breathless Tell, “I was certain, that you were not really going to kill your own William!”—
—“Kill thee?” exclaimed the father; “sooner would I have driven the arrow into my own heart! But eternal curses and sudden death to him, who would have made a man the murderer of his own child! Look!” he continued, while he clasped the boy to his breast with one hand, and with the other drew from his bosom a dart, which he held towards Gessler, “Look, monster! had the first arrow pierced my son’s breast, this should have been buried to the very beard in thine.—For this time thou art safe; but yet rest thou assured, that at the last thou shalt not escape unpunished! Though I may spare thee, Heaven will not.”—
—“Vengeance! vengeance! death and curses to the tyrant! Eternal destruction to the infernal Gessler and all the miscreants who assist him!” thus exclaimed the multitude with one voice; while they closed round Tell in order to conduct him home in safety, and protect him from the Governor’s guards, to whom a signal had been given to fall upon him without delay.
But the friends of liberty were too weak in numbers to resist their powerful oppressors. Before the gallant Tell had retraced half the way to his cottage, his companions were dispersed, and himself delivered into the hands of his enemy. Gessler commanded, that he should be bound, thrown into a vessel which was ready for sailing, and conveyed to the dungeons of Kussnach, as a violator of the respect due to imperial dignity.
No one was suffered to accompany Tell; but his little son clung to the bonds which were cutting the flesh of his father, and cried, that he would throw himself into the flood, if they tore him from him. Gessler’s soldiers had no objection to taking two victims instead of one, and yielded to the child’s request, whom Amabel followed into the vessel without being questioned. The boy was her darling, and it was she who had conducted him to the fatal archery, where it was his destiny to play so principal a part. The cry that he was safe had rouzed her from the swoon into which the sight of his danger had thrown her; and she now found it impossible to part so soon from the cherub, whom she had expected never more to clasp to her bosom but as a corse. She had also no slight grounds for apprehending new dangers for the rescued victim, should she leave him in the hands of his enemies with no other protector than his captive father. Gessler’s servile ministers could not have well pitched upon a more skilful or certain means of inflicting pain on Tell, than by murdering his son before his face.