HEL\ 
neither their wife inftitutions nor the purity of their 
manners would have availed them, “ not to be amenable 
to any foreign tribunal, nor to be ever tried but accord¬ 
ing to their own laws ; ” they in return gave a ftriking 
proof of their firm adherence to Rodolph, on a day 
when one hundred of them, headed by himfelf, dif. 
played a memorable infiance of undaunted valour, in a 
decifive battle againft Ottocarus king of Bohemia. He 
never failed to rife from his throne at the approach of 
Jacob Muller, a burgher of Zurich, who in an engage¬ 
ment had, at the peril of his own life, faved. that of the 
monarch ; he never applied in vain to the citizens for a 
loan or fubfidy ; and found them ever ready to promote 
his intereft and glory. 
Rodolph held the Swifs in high efiimation, and was 
accuftomed to tell them that he fliould ever confider 
thepa as his meritorious and darling children ; and, as 
fuch, would maintain them in the immediate protedtion 
of the empire, and reierve them for the moft important 
of its fervices. But Albert, who fucceeded Rodolph, ' 
was of a different charadter from his father. The little 
cantons, being well acquainted with Albert, anticipated 
the attacks which would be made on their rights and 
privileges, and prepared torpeet the outrage. It feems 
that a fort of confederacy exifted between the little 
Hates of Uri, Schwitz, and Underwalden, previoufly 
even to this time; and, on the occafion of Rodolph’s 
death, it was folemnly renewed; while the reputation 
of Albert for ambition, hauteur, and feverity, occalion- 
ed like precautions to be taken in other places to oppofe 
his defigns. Having on this account alfo loft the impe¬ 
rial diadem, he was engaged in a war w ith the empire ; 
but, being fuccefsful over the newly-eledled emperor 
Adolphus, his rival, whom he flew in battle with his 
own hand, he thus regained the fplendid prize of which 
his pride and overbearing conduct had deprived hinn 
See the article Germany, vol. viii. p. 483. 
On being inverted with the imperial dignity, Albert 
endeavoured, by fpecious offers and fair promifes, to in¬ 
duce the little cantons to hold under him in right of his 
hereditary dominions, and not as head of the empire. 
They lent their anl'wer in thefe words by Werner of At- 
tinghaufen,' landamman of Uri; “We acknowledge, 
and we fhall never forget, that the emperor Rodolph 
always fiiowed himfelf towards us as a juft chief, and 
true to his engagements. His children may always 
count on our gratitude ; but we are refolved to continue 
to be what our anceftors were. The emperor knows 
our rights, let him confirm them as his father did.’.’ 
Albert, however, not only refufed to confirm their an¬ 
cient privileges, without deigning to affign anycaufe 
for his refufal, but fet over the Swifs two noblemen 
who were alike ftigmatized for their avarice and arro¬ 
gance ; their adminiftration becoming infuppoftable, 
the people^ addrefled their petitions and complaints to 
the emperor, but without fuctefs. 
Thus countenanced, the tyrants gave a loofe to their 
defpotifm. Ond of them, Gefsler, who was governor 
of Underwalden, fet his hat upon a pole at Altorff; and, 
in the wantonnefs of power, demanded that the fame re- 
fpedt Ihould be paid to it as to himfelf. The hiftories 
of Swiflerland relate, that a man named William Tell 
refufed to fubmit to this indignity.' Gefsler gave or¬ 
ders that he fliould be brought before him ; when, tell¬ 
ing him that he had heard he was an excellent markf- 
man, he commanded him to Ihoot an arrow at an apple 
which he caufed to be placed upon the head of Tell’s 
fon, declaring at the fame time, that, if he failed to hit 
it, he fliould be hanged.. Tell, though with a trem¬ 
bling hand, ftruck off the apple w ithout touching his 
fon, and thereby faved his life; but Gefsler, per¬ 
ceiving that the markfman, though he was ordered to 
have but one arrow, ftill retained one in his belt, de¬ 
manded the reafon ; on which the intrepid archer de¬ 
clared, that, had he been fo unfortunate as to have kill- 
Vol. IX. No. 592. 
r E T I A. 369 
ed his fon, the other arrow he meant to have directed 
at the tyrant’s heart. Gefsler, who had promifed to 
give him his life on his acknowledging the truth, now- 
ordered lym to be bound, and carried prifoner for life to 
a place on the lake of Lucerne ; but Tell, happily ef« 
caping out of the boat in eroding the lake, retired into 
the mountains, where he waited for an opportunity of 
deftroying the tyrant, and at length fhot him as he was 
palling along the road. The late baron Haller, a few 
years before his death, publiftied a pamphlet at Berne, 
in which lie controverted the received opinion concern¬ 
ing the hiftory of William Tell, and particularly the 
authenticity of the ftory of the apple, chiefiy on the 
ground that the fir ft writer who mentioned it wrote 
near two hundred years after the event ; and, becaufe a 
fimilar ftory, and varying only in the names of the par¬ 
ties and the feene of aftion, is told by Saxo-Grammati- 
cus, in his Danifli annals, and faid to have happened in 
Denmark in the year 965. This fceptifcifm concerning 
a piece of hiftory, which his countrymen confidered as 
the moft facred verity, excited fuch general refentment, 
that a remonftrance wasprefented to the fovereign coun¬ 
cil of Berne, ^and the profane pamphlet was publicly 
burnt at Uri. But, however the credibility of the par¬ 
ticular ftory of the apple may be fiiaken by fuch objec¬ 
tions, yet the general hiftory of William Tell is cele¬ 
brated in many old German fongs, which are yet pre- 
ferved, the ancient dialed! and limplicity of. which are 
fuch as feem to raife the deeds they celebrate above all 
reafonable fufpicion ; and the conftant' traditions of the 
country likewife ftrongly fupport the authenticity of 
Tell’s general hiftory. 
The people now univerfally exprefled their abhor¬ 
rence of the tyrants 5 and the inhabitants of Uri, Schwitz, 
and Underwalden, who had from time immemorial pof- 
fefled the right of being governed by their own magis¬ 
trates, with other important privileges, united in order 
to defend themfelves to the lull extremity. For this 
-purpofe they chofe three commanders, gentlemen of 
approved courage and abilities ; thefe were Werner 
Stauffach, Walter Furft, and Arnold Melchth&l; who 
fecretly agreed to furprife and demolifh the caftles in 
which the imperial governors refided. 
This resolution being adopted by the cantons, thefe 
three places joined again in a league for ten years, which 
gave birth to the Helvetic Confederacy . 
The emperor Albert, thinking this a proper time for 
totally reducing thefe places by force of arms, halted to 
Baden to begin the preparations; but, being on his re¬ 
turn murdered by John of Haplburg, the defign was 
dropped; and the acceflion of Henry VII. to the em¬ 
pire, who was jealous of the houfe of Auftria, prolonged 
the calm. This emperor confirmed to them the impor¬ 
tant privilege of holding immediately of the empire, 
(A. D. 1309,) and that of not being cited before foreign 
tribunals ; and thus were they in fa£t abfolved from all 
refponfibility on account of their infurreftidn againft the 
governors of the duke of Auftria. Henry even went 
farther, and gave his exprefs approbation to their con¬ 
duit towards their late tyrannical'magiftrates. The 
quiet enjoyed by the three cantons, however, was now- 
approaching to a clo'fe. Leopold of Auftria no longer 
fupprefled his indignant feelings; his threats were loud ; 
his preparations were formidable ; all his vaffals in Ah 
face, Swabia, Argovia, and in other parts of Helvetia, 
as far as the Oberland and the very frontiers of Under¬ 
walden, were commanded to join his ftandard ; and they 
were not backward in obeying the fummons. Z-urich, 
and the abbey of Einfiedlen, contributed to fwell the 
bands which were to overwhelm the brave confederates. 
Mediators interpofed their friendly offices, and Leopold 
deigned to make propofals of accommodation to thofe 
whom he reprefented as his revolted fubjetts; but, in 
thefe offers they difeerned only flavery ill-difguifed, 
and therefore they rejected them; at the fame time de- 
5 B daring 
