OTHER THREE PEASANTS (running in).

We'll help you. What's the matter? Down with them!

[HILDEGARD, MECHTHILD, and ELSBETH return.

TELL.

Go, go, good people, I can help myself.

Think you, had I a mind to use my strength, These pikes of theirs should daunt me?

MELCHTHAL (to FRIESSHARDT).

Only try-- Try, if you dare, to force him from amongst us.

FURST and STAUFFACHER.

Peace, peace, friends!

FRIESSHARDT (loudly).

Riot! Insurrection, ho!

[Hunting horns without.

WOMEN.

The governor!

FRIESSHARDT (raising his voice).

Rebellion! Mutiny!

STAUFFACHER.

Roar, till you burst, knave!

ROSSELMANN and MELCHTHAL.

Will you hold your tongue?

FRIESSHARDT (calling still louder).

Help, help, I say, the servants of the law!

FURST.

The viceroy here! Then we shall smart for this!

[Enter GESSLER on horseback, with a falcon on his wrist; RUDOLPH DER HARRAS, BERTHA, and RUDENZ, and a numerous train of armed attendants, who form a circle of lances around the whole stage.

HARRAS.

Room for the viceroy!

GESSLER.

Drive the clowns apart.

Why throng the people thus? Who calls for help?

[General silence.

Who was it? I will know.

[FRIESSHARDT steps forward.

And who art thou?

And why hast thou this man in custody?

[Gives his falcon to an attendant.

FRIESSHARDT.

Dread sir, I am a soldier of your guard, And stationed sentinel beside the cap; This man I apprehended in the act Of pa.s.sing it without obeisance due, So I arrested him, as you gave order, Whereon the people tried to rescue him.

GESSLER (after a pause).

And do you, Tell, so lightly hold your king, And me, who act as his vicegerent here, That you refuse the greeting to the cap I hung aloft to test your loyalty?

I read in this a disaffected spirit.

TELL.

Pardon me, good my lord! The action sprung From inadvertence,--not from disrespect.

Were I discreet, I were not William Tell.

Forgive me now--I'll not offend again.

GESSLER (after a pause).

I hear, Tell, you're a master with the bow,-- And bear the palm away from every rival.

WALTER.

That must be true, sir! At a hundred yards He'll shoot an apple for you off the tree.

GESSLER.

Is that boy thine, Tell?

TELL.

Yes, my gracious lord.

GESSLER.

Hast any more of them?

TELL.

Two boys, my lord.

GESSLER.

And, of the two, which dost thou love the most?

TELL.

Sir, both the boys are dear to me alike.

GESSLER.

Then, Tell, since at a hundred yards thou canst Bring down the apple from the tree, thou shalt Approve thy skill before me. Take thy bow-- Thou hast it there at hand--and make thee ready To shoot an apple from the stripling's head!

But take this counsel,--look well to thine aim, See that thou hittest the apple at the first, For, shouldst thou miss, thy head shall pay the forfeit.

[All give signs of horror.