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Updated: May 28, 2025
Many hundreds of years ago, at the end of the Thirteenth Century to be exact, in the country that is now Switzerland, there lived a Swiss hunter and herdsman named William Tell. He lived in the little town of Burglen among the mountains, and with him lived his wife and his two sons, who, when this story opens, were about ten and twelve years old.
So skilful was he in the use of the bow, that the fame of his exploits in that way had obtained for him the name of "The Crossbowman of Burglen." He was also very skilful in the management of boats upon the lakes.
"Eh, what?" said Gessler, his dark face growing more dark and angry still. "Who dares to disobey my orders?" "'Tis William Tell of Bürglen, my lord." "Tell?" said Gessler, turning in his saddle and looking at Tell as he stood among the people, holding little Walter by the hand. There was silence for a few minutes while Gessler gazed at Tell in anger.
Then they swore never to betray each other, to be true to the Emperor, but to drive the Austrian governor, his friends, his servants, and his soldiers out of the land. William Tell did not live in Altorf, but in another village some way off, called Bürglen. His wife, who was called Hedwig, was Walter Fürst's daughter. Tell and Hedwig had two sons, William and Walter.
I cannot tell you the precise year of his birth; but in the year 1307 he was a married man, and lived with his wife and children, in the village of Burglen, near the great town of Altdorf, in the canton of Uri. Tell maintained his family chiefly by hunting the chamois, and shooting other wild game.
In the mean while it happened that the Bailiff Hermann Gessler was shot dead by Wilhelm Tell, who was of Bürglen, at the entrance of the Schächenthal, a half-hour from Altorf, in Uri, son-in-law of Walther Fürst, and a man of some substance, for he had the steward-ship in fee in Bürglen of the Frauenmüster Abbey in Zürich, one of the conspirators.
Walter, the younger, was about six years old. William Tell loved his wife and his children very much, and they all lived happily together in a pretty little cottage at Bürglen. "Hedwig," said Tell one morning, some days after the meeting mentioned above, "I am going into Altorf to see your father." Hedwig looked troubled. "Do be careful, William," she said. "Must you really go?
The helplessness, the distress, together with the uncommon beauty of the child, moved the heart of a peasant near him, to compassion. "Who is your father, my fair boy?" said he. "Point him out, and I will lead you to him." "My father is William Tell, the crossbow-man of Burglen," said the child. "There he is close to the cap on the pole yonder." "Is he your father, poor babe?" said the peasant.
The little village of Burglen, whose spire we saw above the forest, in a glen near by, was the birth-place of Tell, and the place where his dwelling stood, is now marked by a small chapel. In the Schachen, a noisy mountain stream that comes down to join the Reuss, he was drowned, when an old man, in attempting to rescue a child who had fallen in a death worthy of the hero!
While her attention was thus painfully excited she heard some of the people round her saying, "Who is it that has ventured to resist the governor's decree?" "It is William Tell, the crossbow-man of Burglen," replied many voices. "William Tell!" said one of the soldiers; "why it was his kinsman who raised a rabble to insult the ducal bonnet the other night."
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