among my people with speeches. I might have you executed without ceremony. But do I? No. Nobody shall say that Hermann Gessler the Governor is not kind-hearted. I say to myself, ‘I will give this man one chance.’ I place your fate in your own skilful hands. How can a man complain of harsh treatment when he is made master of his own fate? Besides, I don’t ask you to do anything difficult. I merely bid you perform what must be to you a simple shot. You boast of your unerring aim. Now is the time to prove it. Clear the way there!"
Walter Fürst flung himself on his knees before the Governor.
“Your Highness,” he cried, “none deny your power. Let it be mingled with mercy. It is excellent, as an English poet will say in a few hundred years, to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant. Take
