“I swear,” replied Gessler, “that thou shalt either shoot the arrow, or die!”

“My choice is soon made,” said Tell, dropping the bow from his hand.  “Let me die!”

“Ay, but the child shall be slain before thy face ere thine own sentence be executed, traitor!” cried the governor, “if thou shoot not at him.”

“Give me the bow once more!” exclaimed Tell, in a hoarse, deep voice; “but in mercy let some one turn the child’s face away from me.  If I meet the glance of those sweet eyes of his, it will unnerve my hand; and then, perchance, the shaft, on whose true aim his life and mine depend, may err.”

Lalotte, knowing that all depended on his remaining quiet, as soon as the soldiers had placed him with his face averted from his father, sprang forward, and whispered in Henric’s ear, “Stand firm, dear boy, without moving, for five minutes, and you will be forgiven for your fault of this morning.”

There was a sudden pause of awe and expectation among the dense crowd that had gathered round the group planted within a bow-shot of the linden-tree beneath which the child was bound.  Tell, whose arms were now released, unbuckled the quiver that was slung across his shoulder, and carefully examined his arrows, one by one.  He selected two:  one of them he placed in his girdle, the other he fitted to his bow-string; and then he raised his eyes to Heaven, and his lips moved in prayer.  He relied not upon his own skill but he asked the assistance of One in whose hands are the issues of life and death; and he did not ask in vain.  The trembling, agitated hand that a moment before shook with the strong emotion of a parent’s anxious fears, became suddenly firm and steady; his swimming eyes resumed their keen, clear sight, and his mind recovered its wonted energy of purpose at the proper moment.

Lalotte’s young voice was the first to proclaim, aloud, “The arrow hath cleft the apple in twain! and the child is safe.”

“God hath sped my shaft, and blessed be His name!” exclaimed the pious archer, on whose ear the thunders of applause, with which the assembled multitude hailed his successful shot, had fallen unheeded.

The soldiers now unbound the child; and Lalotte fearlessly advanced, and led him to his father.  But before the fond parent could fold his darling to his bosom, the tyrant Gessler sternly demanded for what purpose he had reserved the second arrow, which he had seen him select and place in his belt.

“That arrow,” replied Tell, giving way to a sudden burst of passion, “that arrow was designed to avenge the death of my child, if I had slain him with the other.”

“How to avenge?” exclaimed the governor, furiously.  “To avenge, saidst thou? and on whom didst thou intend thy vengeance would fall?”

“On thee, tyrant!” replied Tell, fixing his eyes sternly on the governor.  “My next mark would have been thy bosom, had I failed in my first.  Thou perceivest that mine is not a shaft to miscarry.”