William Tell
Alan Blackwood
Hardcover
(Littlehampton Book Services Ltd, March 15, 1970)
This book is the story of William Tell. It was set in Switzerland, where a tyrant named Gessler ruled over the people with an iron fist. One day this tyrant set up a tall pole in the public square, put his cap on top of it, and then gave orders that every man who came into town should bow down before it. William Tell would not do this, and laughed at the cap. Gessler became very angry and to punish Tell, who was famous in the land as a hunter, ordered that Tell's little boy stand in the square with an apple on his head, and then told Tell to shoot the apple with one of his arrows. If he failed, soldiers were to shoot the boy immediately. William Tell succeeded, to the delight of the crowd which had gathered. As he was turning away a second arrow fell from his coat. When Gessler questioned Tell about the second arrow, he replied: "This arrow was for your heart if I had hurt my child." In the 1800's Giochini Rossini composed an opera about William Tell. In the opera there was a musical piece called the William Tell overture. Part of it became the familiar theme song for "The Lone Ranger."