After questioning Tell, whose answers are not satisfactory, the bailiff pronounces sentence upon him.  The sentence is that he shall shoot at an apple placed on the head of his little son, Walter, and if he fails to hit the mark he shall die.

“My lord,” cries the agonized parent; “what horrible command is this you lay upon me?  What! aim at a mark placed on the head of my dear child?  No, no, it is impossible that such a thought could enter your imagination.  In the name of the God of mercy, you cannot seriously impose that trial on a father.”

“Thou shalt aim at an apple placed on the head of thy son.  I will and I command it,” repeats the tyrant.

“I!  William Tell! aim with my own crossbow at the head of my own offspring!  I would rather die a thousand deaths.”

“Thou shall shoot, or assuredly thou diest with thy son!”

“Become the murderer of my child!  My lord, you have no son—­you cannot have the feelings of a father’s heart!”

Gessler’s friends interfere in behalf of the unhappy father, and plead for mercy.  But all appeal is in vain.  The tyrant is determined on carrying out his sentence.

The father and son are placed at a distance of eighty paces apart.  An apple is placed on the boy’s head, and the father is commanded to hit the mark.  He hesitates and trembles.

“Why dost thou hesitate?” questions his persecutor.  “Thou hast deserved death, and I could compel thee to undergo the punishment; but in my clemency I place thy fate in thy own skillful hands.  He who is the master of his destiny cannot complain that his sentence is a severe one.  Thou art proud of thy steady eye and unerring aim; now, hunter, is the moment to prove thy skill.  The object is worthy of thee—­the prize is worth contending for.  To strike the center of a target is an ordinary achievement; but the true master of his art is he who is always certain, and whose heart, hand, and eye are firm and steady under every trial.”

At length Tell nerves himself for the ordeal, raises his bow, and takes aim at the target on his son’s head.  Before firing, however, he concealed a second arrow under his vest.  His movement did not escape Gessler’s notice.

The marksman fires.  The apple falls from his boy’s head, cleft in twain by the arrow.

Even Gessler is loud in his admiration of Tell’s skill.  “By heaven,” he cries, “he has clove the apple exactly in the center.  Let us do justice; it is indeed a masterpiece of skill.”

Tell’s friends congratulate him.  He is about to set out for his home with the child who has been saved to him from the very jaws of death as it were.  But Gessler stays him.

“Thou hast concealed a second arrow in thy bosom,” he says, sternly addressing Tell.  “What didst thou intend to do with it?” Tell replies that such is the custom of all hunters.

Gessler is not satisfied and urges him to confess his real motive.  “Speak truly and frankly,” he says; “say what thou wilt, I promise thee thy life.  To what purpose didst thou destine the second arrow?”