The crowd, seeing a discussion going on, had left the edge of the meadow and clustered round to listen. A groan of dismay went up at the Governor's words.
"Down on your knees, boy," whispered Rudolph der Harras to Walter--"down on your knees, and beg his Excellency for your life."
"I won't!" said Walter stoutly.
"Come," said Gessler, "clear a path there--clear a path! Hurry yourselves. I won't have this loitering. Look you, Tell: attend to me for a moment. I find you in the middle of this meadow deliberately defying my authority and making sport of my orders. I find you in the act of stirring up discontent among my people with speeches. I might have you executed without ceremony. But do I? No. Nobody shall say that Hermann Gessler the Governor is not kind-hearted. I say to myself, 'I will give this man one chance.' I place your fate in your own skilful hands. How can a man complain of harsh treatment when he is made master of his own fate? Besides, I don't ask you to do anything difficult. I merely bid you perform what must be to you a simple shot. You boast of your unerring aim. Now is the time to prove it. Clear the way there!"
Walter Fürst flung himself on his knees before the Governor.
"Your Highness," he cried, "none deny your power. Let it be mingled with mercy. It is excellent, as an English poet will say in a few hundred years, to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant. Take the half of my possessions, but spare my son-in-law."
But Walter Tell broke in impatiently, and bade his grandfather rise, and not kneel to the tyrant.
"Where must I stand?" asked he. "I'm not afraid. Father can hit a bird upon the wing."
"You see that lime-tree yonder," said Gessler to his soldiers; "take the boy and bind him to it."
"I will not be bound!" cried Walter. "I am not afraid. I'll stand still. I won't breathe. If you bind me I'll kick!"