PLATE I.


Beneath a tyrant foreign yoke,
How love of freedom waxes!
(Especially when foreign folk
Come round collecting taxes.)
The Swiss, held down by Gessler's fist,
Would fain have used evasion;
Yet none there seemed who could resist
His methods of persuasion.

[Illustration: GESSLER'S METHODS OF PERSUASION]




PLATE II.


And pride so filled this Gessler's soul
(A monarch's pride outclassing),
He stuck his hat up on a pole,
That all might bow in passing.
Then rose the patriot, William Tell--
"We've groaned 'neath Austria's sway first;
Must we be ruled by poles as well?
I've just a word to say first!"

[Illustration: THEY WOULD MARCH ABOUT, BEATING TIN CANS AND SHOUTING]