And liberty was won by Tell;
How long ’twill last, you ask, and tremble:
Long as the Swiss their sires resemble.”
At the upper end of the lake, retired a short distance, is Altdorf, the capital of Uri. Here in the public square are two fountains. The pillar in the centre of one of them is surmounted by a figure of Tell holding his boy under one arm and pressing his bow to his bosom with the other; it marks the spot where Tell stood when he launched the fearful arrow. The other fountain is placed on the supposed site of the lime-tree by which the boy stood awaiting his father’s unerring aim. A figure of Gessler indicates where the pole bearing the hat and crown was erected; close to the second fountain is an ancient square tower, on the outside of which are painted the scenes of Tell’s history. Near by Altdorf runs the small stream of Schächen, where Tell met his death in 1354: seeing a child fall into the swollen stream as he passed that way, he plunged in to rescue it, and, being old and feeble, lost his life. The museum at Zurich contains the cross-bow of Tell; the little hamlet of Bürglen, his birthplace, has many reminiscences to show; old houses in Altdorf, Arth, and Schaffhausen are frescoed with representations of facts in his history. In Schaffhausen is a fountain having an old stone figure of Tell with the bow and arrow, on the base of which is the date 1682.
But we are told that history records six other apple-shooting feats, performed by different individuals before and after the time of Tell. It is difficult to see how this decides whether Tell was a real character or not. Such skill in marksmanship was not rare in the days of archery. A similar, indeed identical, feat is mentioned of the Scandinavian hero Egill, who was commanded by King Nidhung to shoot an apple from the head of his son. Egill, like Tell, took two arrows, and, on being asked why, replied, as Tell did to Gessler, “To shoot thee, tyrant, if I failed in my task.” Similar stories are recorded of Eindridi, of Norway; of Hemingr, challenged to the display of skill by King Harald, son of Sigurd, in 1066; of Toki, or Palnatoke, the Danish hero, in 1514; and of William of Cloudesley, who, to show the king his skill in shooting, bound his eldest son to a stake, put an apple on his head, and at a distance of three hundred feet cleft the apple in two. This is described by Percy in his “Reliques:”
“I have a son is seven years old,
He is to me full dear;
I will hym tye to a stake
And lay an apple upon his head,
And go sixscore paces hym fro,