So mused I by the Schächen;
So say we, true and well
That the last deed was the best deed
That closed the life of Tell!”
Henry Morford.[10]
[10] Poems of Places—Switzerland: Longfellow.
Tradition claims that Gessler’s cruel treatment of Tell precipitated historical events, for when the men of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwald heard that Gessler was dead, they gave the agreed signal for a general uprising. Then they simultaneously attacked all the Austrian bailiffs, slew or drove them away, and razed their castles to the ground, after freeing their captive countrymen.
This rebellion roused the wrath of the Emperor Albert, who immediately set out from Hapsburg Castle to put it down with a heavy hand. But while crossing the Reuss, in full view of his castle and retainers, Albert was murdered by his nephew John and by four Swiss noblemen, the only persons who were with him. Then the murderers fled, leaving the emperor to breathe his last in the arms of a peasant woman who happened to be near.
It is said that, wandering among the mountains, John finally reached Tell’s cottage at Bürglen, where he stopped to beg food. Here he confessed what he had done, and was sternly reproved by Tell, who proved to him that murdering a relative in revenge for personal injuries and for the sake of selfish gain, was very different from killing a tyrant in self-defence and for the good of one’s country.
All but one of Albert’s murderers escaped justice; but not content with slaying that victim in the most barbarous way, his wife and daughter persecuted all the friends and relatives of those who had taken part in the crime. More than a thousand of these unfortunates are said to have perished, and it is claimed that Agnes, the emperor’s daughter, personally superintended some of the executions, and rapturously exclaimed, “Now I am bathing in May dew!” when she saw their blood flow in torrents.