Page:William Tell Told Again.djvu/177

Rh to begin the revolution without delay. All the fortresses that Gessler had built during his years of rule were carried by assault on the same night. The last to fall was one which had only been begun a short time back, and the people who had been forced to help to build it spent a very pleasant hour pulling down the stones which had cost them such labour to put in their place. Even the children helped. It was a great treat to them to break what they pleased without being told not to.

“See,” said Tell, as he watched them, “in years to come, when these same children are gray-haired, they will remember this night as freshly as they will remember it to-morrow."

A number of people rushed up, bearing the pole which Gessler’s soldiers had set up in the meadow. The hat was still on top of it, nailed to the wood by Tell’s arrow.