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102
WILLIAM TELL
“Here’s the hat!” shouted Ruodi—“the hat to which we were to bow!”
“What shall we do with it?” cried several voices.
“Destroy it! Burn it!" said others. “To the flames with this emblem of tyranny!”
But Tell stopped them.
“Let us preserve it," he said. “Gessler set it up to be a means of enslaving the country; we will set it up as a memorial of our newly-gained liberty. Nobly is fulfilled the oath we swore to drive the tyrants from our land. Let the pole mark the spot where the revolution finished.”
“But is it finished?" said Arnold of Melchthal. “It is a nice point. When the Emperor of Austria hears that we have killed his friend Gessler, and burnt down all his fine new fortresses, will he not come here to seek revenge?”
