Tell can no longer restrain his indignation, and, fixing his eyes steadily on Gessler, he answers “Well then, my lord, since you assure my life, I will speak the truth without reserve.  If I had struck my beloved child, with the second arrow I would have transpierced thy heart.  Assuredly that time I should not have missed my mark.”

“Villain!” exclaims Gessler, “I have promised thee life upon my knightly word; I will keep my pledge.  But since I know thee now, and thy rebellious heart, I will remove thee to a place where thou shalt never more behold the light of sun or moon.  Thus only shall I be sheltered from thy arrows.”

He orders the guards to seize and bind Tell, saying, “I will myself at once conduct him to Kussnacht.”

The fortress of Kussnacht was situated on the summit of Mount Rigi between Lake Lucerne, or the Lake of the Four Cantons as it is sometimes called, and Lake Zug.  It was reached by crossing Lake Lucerne.

The prisoner was placed bound in the bottom of a boat, and with his guards, the rowers, an inexperienced pilot, and Gessler in command, the boat was headed for Kussnacht.

When about halfway across the lake a sudden and violent storm overwhelmed the party.  They were in peril of their lives.  The rowers and pilot were panic-stricken, and powerless in face of the danger that threatened them.

Tell’s fame as a boatman was as widespread as that of his skill as an archer.  The rowers cried aloud in their terror that he was the only man in Switzerland that could save them from death.  Gessler immediately commanded him to be released from his bonds and given the helm.

Tell succeeded in guiding the vessel to the shore.  Then seizing his bow and arrows, which his captors had thrown beside him, he sprang ashore at a point known as “Tell’s Leap.”  The boat, rebounding, after he leaped from it was again driven out on the lake before any of the remainder of its occupants could effect a landing.  After a time, however, the fury of the storm abated, and they reached the shore in safety.

In the meantime Tell had concealed himself in a defile in the mountain through which Gessler would have to pass on his way to Kussnacht.  There he lay in wait for his persecutor who followed in hot pursuit.

Vowing vengeance as he went, Gessler declared that if the fugitive did not give himself up to justice, every day that passed by should cost him the life of his wife or one of his children.  While the tyrant was yet speaking, an arrow shot by an unerring hand pierced his heart.  Tell had taken vengeance into his own hands.

The death of Gessler was the signal for a general uprising.  The oath-bound men of Rutli saw that this was their great opportunity.  They called to their countrymen to follow them to freedom or death.

Gessler’s crowning act of tyranny—­his inhuman punishment of Tell —­had roused the spirit of rebellion in the hearts of even the meekest and most submissive of the peasants.  Gladly, then, did they respond to the call of the leaders of the insurrection.