Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/370

338 as an archer, is not noticed by chroniclers who would gladly have retailed the incidents of the setting up of the ducal cap by Gesler in the market-place, of Tell's refusal to do obeisance to it, of his capture, and of the cruelty which compelled him to shoot an apple placed on his son's head, of his release during the storm on the lake that he might steer the skiff, and finally of the death of Gesler by Tell's unerring shaft. When examined more closely, all the antiquities of the myth were found to be of modern manufacture. The two chapels which were supposed to have been raised by eye-witnesses of the events were " trumpery works of a much more recent date," — and if the tales of the showmen were true, the place had "remained unchanged by the growth and decay of trees and otherwise for six centuries and a half." Further, the hat set on a pole that all who passed by might do obeisance is only another form of the golden image set up that all might worship it on the plains of Dura, and here, as in the story of the Three Children, the men who crown the work of Swiss independence are three in number.

Yet so important is this story as showing how utterly destitute of any residuum of fact is the mythology introduced into the history even of a well-known age, that I feel myself justified in quoting the passage in which M. Rilliet sums up the argument proving the absolute im- possibility of the tale from beginning to end.

"The internal history of the three valleys offers to the existence of a popular insurrection which freed them from the tyranny of King Albert of Austria a denial which the consequent conduct of this prince and that of his sons fully confirms. A revolt which would have resulted not only in defying his authority, but outraging it by the ex- pulsion and murder of his officers, would not have been for one instant tolerated by a monarch not less jealous of his power than resolute to make it respected. So when we see him in the month of April, 1308, when he went to recruit in Upper Germany for his Bohemian wars, sojourning on the banks of the Limmat and the Reuss, and approach- ing the theatre assigned to the rebellion, without making the slightest preparation or revealing any intention to chastise its authors ; when we find him at the same time entirely occupied in celebrating the festival of the Carnival with a brilliant train of nobles and prelates ; when we find him soon afterwards, on April 25, confirming to the abbey of Zurich the possession of domains comprehending the places which were the very centre of the revolt ; when we find him, six days later, regardless of revelations about the plot which was to cost him his life, banqueting with the sons and the nephew whose hands were already raised against him, and thence proceed, full of eagerness, to