“Hic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi.”[107]
The renown, likewise, of the heroes of ancient stories is indebted for no inconsiderable portion of its brightness to their mode of warfare, which, by rendering personal courage more effective, rendered it at the same time the object of higher estimation. Prodigies of valor, by which the fate of a kingdom is decided, are now rarely performed, and victory inclines much more to the side of skill than either of physical strength or individual prowess.
With the Swiss no fable hangs about the deeds of William Tell and Arnold Winkelried or the battles of Morgarten, Sempach, and St. Jacob. They are the common glory of the people, their most cherished heritage; but it is in William Tell their pride centres. His very name to this day stirs the Swiss heart with the deepest emotions of pride and patriotism.
All the mementoes connected with his history are cherished with the fondest affection and veneration. Tell’s chapel is the Mecca of all Switzerland. The admiration for his character is an unbounded national passion. Every emotion of patriotism, national gratitude, and ardent love of liberty seems to find its readiest mode of utterance in passionate expressions regarding this heroic man. Ballads are sung to his memory, and in every popular gathering one may hear the familiar words from the old Swiss song,—
“William Tell, he scorned the hat,
To death condemned was he for that,
Unless an apple, on the spot,
From his own child’s head he shot.”
In canvas and marble his effigy adorns the national and cantonal capitals and the public buildings generally. On mountain, rock, and lake his history is carved indelibly.[108] “It cannot be otherwise,” says the honest peasant; “it did so happen, and I believe it; not to believe it would be treason to my country.” In 1760, a pamphlet, under the title of “Fable Danoise,” was issued by a clergyman of Bern named Freudenberger attacking the historical character of this legend. It so aroused the patriotic indignation of the people that no one dared to give it circulation, and the government of the Canton of Uri caused the book to be publicly burned.
In the presence of so many memorials of the deeds of this hero, sustained by evidences of an antecedent and general popular conviction, and feeling that these things are entitled to have some weight, it is difficult to feel any sympathy with the doubts which bookish students have suggested as to the reality of Tell’s existence. No one can visit the lake, the rock, the fountains, the chapel, read the story painted on wall and tower, hear the local traditions in every man’s mouth, witness the annual festivals, study the history of Switzerland, and consider the character of its people, then think of Tell as a myth, more than he would say that Switzerland and all its heroic people have been a fable since Uri’s handful of patriots rid it of Gessler’s despotism. No! The simple story bears a striking analogy to the primitive and pastoral people who commemorate the name and actions of this hero. They know that no character of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is better attested in their history, and will religiously regard him as one of the noblest men that ever lived, so long as the Finsteraarhorn and Jungfrau present themselves in the vast firmament as the ever-enduring symbols of liberty. “The artlessness of Tell’s history resembles a poem; it is a pastoral song in which a single drop of blood is mingled with the dew upon a leaf or a tuft of grass. Providence seems thus to delight in providing for every free community, as the founder of their independence, a fabulous or actual hero, conformable to the local situation, manners, and character of each particular race. To a rustic, pastoral people like the Swiss is given for their liberator a noble peasant; to a proud, aspiring race, such as the Americans, an honest soldier. Two distinct symbols, standing erect by the cradles of the two modern liberties of the world, to personify their opposite natures; on the one hand, Tell with his arrow and the apple; on the other, Washington with his sword and the law.”[109]