When Uri’s beechen woods wave red
In the burning hamlet’s light,
Then from the cavern of the dead
Shall the sleepers wake in might!
They shall wake beside their forest sea,
In the ancient garb they wore,
When they link’d the hands that made us free
On the Rütli’s moonlight shore.”
We now reach on the eastern bank, projecting into the lake, the platform of rock, Tellsplatte, with its little chapel marking the spot where Tell leaped ashore and escaped from Gessler’s boat. After the expulsion of the bailiffs and the demolition of their castles, it became customary among the Swiss to make pilgrimages to this place; and in 1388, only a little more than thirty years after the death of Tell, the Canton of Uri erected this chapel in the presence of a hundred and fourteen persons who had been acquainted with Tell. Müller the historian suggests as a reason why there were only a hundred and fourteen persons who had known Tell to gather together, not much more than thirty years after his death at the erection of the chapel, was, that Tell did not often leave Bürglen, and the deed, according to the ethics of that period, was not likely to attract inquisitive wonderers to him. It was Tell’s deed alone; the people had no part in Gessler’s death, the hour which they had agreed upon for their deliverance had not come. All the old chronicles agree as to the erection of the chapel and the persons present. The chapel was restored in 1883, the old frescoes being carefully removed, and now preserved in the Council House of Altdorf. The restored chapel has four large frescoes of artistic merit. On the back wall above the altar, to the left is the “Leap from the boat;” to the right the “Death of the tyrant;” on the north wall the “Apple scene;” on the southern wall the “Oath of Rütli;” this last fresco is very frequent in Switzerland, representing the Patriot Three (Les Trois Suisses, or Die Drei Schweizer); one holding a short-handled flag with a cross upon it; the central one leaning on a spear; and a third sustaining a tall standard which rests on the ground; all wearing their swords. On Sunday following Easter, annually, a procession of boats, appropriately decorated, proceeds slowly to this chapel, consecrated by art, religion, and patriotism to the great deeds or yet greater thoughts of its olden time hero, and a solemn memorial service is held. Near by at Küssnacht there is another chapel marking the place where Gessler was shot, and over the door is an illustrated painting with the date 18th of November, 1307, and under it the inscription,—
“Here the proud tyrant Gessler fell,