“I will not allow peasants to build houses without my consent,” returned Gessler, angered at this shrewd reply, “or to live in freedom as if they were their own masters.  I will teach you better than to resist my authority.”

So saying, he rode on, leaving Werner greatly disturbed by his threatening words.  He returned into his house with heavy brow and such evidence of discomposure that his wife eagerly questioned him.  Learning what the governor had said, the good lady shared his disturbance, and said,—­

“My dear Werner, you know that many of the country-folk complain of the governor’s tyranny.  In my opinion, it would be well for some of you, who can trust one another, to meet in secret, and take counsel how to throw off his wanton power.”

This advice seemed so judicious to Werner that he sought his friend Walter Fuerst, and arranged with him and Arnold that they should meet and consider what steps to take, their place of meeting being at Ruetli, a small meadow in a lonely situation, closed in on the land side by high rocks, and opening on the Lake of Lucerne.  Others joined them in their patriotic purpose, and on the night of the Wednesday before Martinmas, in the year 1307, each of the three led to the place of meeting ten others, all as resolute and liberty-loving as themselves.  These thirty-three good and true men, thus assembled at the midnight hour in the meadow of Ruetli, united in a solemn oath that they would devote their lives and strength to the freeing of their country from its oppressors.  They fixed the first day of the coming year for the beginning of their work, and then returned to their homes, where they kept the strictest secrecy, occupying themselves in housing their cattle for the winter and in other rural labors, with no indication that they cherished deeper designs.

During this interval of secrecy another event, of a nature highly exasperating to the Swiss, is said to have happened.  It is true that modern critics declare the story of this event to be solely a legend and that nothing of the kind ever took place.  However that be, it has ever since remained one of the most attractive of popular tales, and the verdict of the critics shall not deter us from telling again this oft-repeated and always welcome story.

We have named two of the many tyrannical governors of Switzerland, the deputies there of Albert of Austria, then Emperor of Germany, whose purpose was to abolish the privileges of the Swiss and subject the free communes to his arbitrary rule.  The second named of these, Gessler, governor of Uri and Schwyz, whose threats had driven Werner to conspiracy, occupied a fortress in Uri, which he had built as a place of safety in case of revolt, and a centre of tyranny.  “Uri’s prison” he called this fortress, an insult to the people of Uri which roused their indignation.  Perceiving their sullenness, Gessler resolved to give them a salutary lesson of his power and their helplessness.