Those mighty hills, so shadowy, so sublime,
As rather to belong to heaven than earth,
But instantly receives into his soul
A sense, a feeling, that he loses not;
A something that informs him ’tis an hour
Whence he may date henceforward and forever?”
CHAPTER XVIII.
WILLIAM TELL.
“Almighty powers! That was a shot indeed;
It will be talked of to the end of time.”
Trite and worn out as the subject may appear, it is impossible by any amount of familiarity to divest the historical legend of William Tell of its undying charm; and he who has visited the scene, so far from his interest in it being exhausted, has only been made more enthusiastic in its favor. It is a perfectly simple and natural story, when read in the light of the times, the circumstances that led up to it, and the impulses which sustained it throughout.