seeing a second arrow in his quiver, asked him what that was for?  Tell replied, evasively, that such was the usual practice of archers.  Not content with this reply, the vogt pressed him on farther, and assured him of his life, whatever the arrow might have been meant for.  “Vogt,” said Tell, “had I shot my child, the second shaft was for THEE; and be sure I should not have missed my mark a second time!” Transported with rage not unmixed with terror, Gessler exclaimed, “Tell!  I have promised thee life, but thou shalt pass it in a dungeon.”  Accordingly, he took boat with his captive, intending to transport him across the lake to Kussnacht in Schwytz, in defiance of the common right of the district, which provided that its natives should not be kept in confinement beyond its borders.  A sudden storm on the lake overtook the party; and Gessler was obliged to give orders to loose Tell from his fetters, and commit the helm to his hands, as he was known for a skilful steersman.  Tell guided the vessel to the foot of the great Axenberg, where a ledge of rock distinguished to the present day as Tell’s platform, presented itself as the only possible landing-place for leagues around.  Here he seized his cross-bow, and escaped by a daring leap, leaving the skiff to wrestle its way in the billows.  The vogt also escaped the storm, but only to meet a fate more signal from Tell’s bow in the narrow pass near Kussnacht.  The tidings of his death enhanced the courage of the people, but also alarmed the vigilance of their rulers, and greatly increased the dangers of the conspirators, who kept quiet.  These occurrences marked the close of 1307.—­Cabinet Cyclopaedia.  History of Switzerland.

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GREAT PLAGUE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

The early triumphs of Swiss valour were saddened by the breaking out of that great plague, which visited with its ravages the greater part of Europe and Asia, and of which the most vivid delineation ever written (except that of a similar pest by Thucydides) has been preserved in the Decameron of Boccacio.  Whole towns were depopulated.  Estates were left without claimants or occupiers.  Priests, physicians, grave-diggers, could not be found in adequate numbers; and the consecrated earth of the churchyards no longer sufficed for the reception of its destined tenants.  In the order of Franciscans alone, 120,430 monks are said to have perished.  This plague had been preceded by tremendous earthquakes, which laid in ruins towns, castles, and villages.  Dearth and famine, clouds of locusts, and even an innocent comet, had been long before regarded as fore-runners of the pestilence; and when it came it was viewed as an unequivocal sign of the wrath of God.  At the outset, the Jews became, as usual, objects of umbrage, as having occasioned this calamity by poisoning the wells.  A persecution was commenced against them, and numberless innocent persons were consigned, by heated fanaticism, to a dreadful death