Gessler

( Albrecht ), the brutal and tyrannical governor of Switzerland, appointed by Austria over the three forest cantons. When the people rose in rebellion, Ge ler insulted them by hoisting his cap on a pole, and threatening death to any one who refused to bow down to it in reverence. William Tell refused to do so, and was compelled to shoot at an apple placed on the head of his own son. Having dropped an arrow by accident, Ge ler demanded why he had brought a second. “To shoot you,” said the intrepid mountaineer, “if I fail in my task.” Ge ler then ordered him to be cast into Kusnacht Castle, “a prey to the reptiles that lodged there.” Ge ler went in the boat to see the order executed, and as the boat neared land, Tell leapt on shore, pushed back the boat, shot Ge ler, and freed his country from Austrian domination.—Ro ini, Guglielmo Tell (1829).