The king was sent to England, where he was treated with the greatest
kindness. When, some time afterwards there was a splendid procession
in London to celebrate the victory of Poitiers, he was allowed
to ride in the procession on a beautiful white horse, while the
Black Prince rode on a pony at his side.

The Black Prince died in 1376. He was sincerely mourned by the
English people. They felt that they had lost a prince who would
have made a great and good king.

WILLIAM TELL

AND ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED

I

Far up among the Alps, in the very heart of Switzerland, are three
districts, or cantons, as they are called, which are known as the
Forest Cantons and are famous in the world's history. About two
thousand years ago the Romans found in these cantons a hardy race
of mountaineers, who, although poor, were free men and proud of
their independence. They became the friends and allies of Rome,
and the cantons were for many years a part of the Roman Empire,
but the people always had the right to elect their own officers
and to govern themselves.

When Goths and the Vandals and the Huns from beyond the Rhine and
the Danube overran the Roman Empire, these three cantons were not
disturbed. The land was too poor and rocky to attract men who were
fighting for possession of the rich plains and valleys of Europe,
and so it happened that for century after century, the mountaineers
of these cantons lived on in their old, simple way, undisturbed
by the rest of the world.

In a canton in the valley of the Rhine lived the Hapsburg family,
whose leaders in time grew to be very rich and powerful. They became
dukes of Austria and some of them were elected emperors. One of the
Hapsburgs, Albert I, claimed that the land of the Forest Cantons
belonged to him. He sent a governor and a band of soldiers to those
cantons and made the people submit to his authority.

In one of the Forest Cantons at this time lived a famous mountaineer
named William Tell. He was tall and strong. In all Switzerland no
man had a foot so sure as his on the mountains or a hand so skilled
in the use of a bow. He was determined to resist the Austrians.

Secret meetings of the mountaineers were held and all took a solemn
oath to stand by each other and fight for their freedom; but they
had no arms and were simple shepherds who had never been trained
as soldiers. The first thing to be done was to get arms without
attracting the attention of the Austrians