take counsel how to throw
off his wanton power."

This advice seemed so judicious to Werner that he sought his friend
Walter Fuerst, and arranged with him and Arnold that they should meet and
consider what steps to take, their place of meeting being at Ruetli, a
small meadow in a lonely situation, closed in on the land side by high
rocks, and opening on the Lake of Lucerne. Others joined them in their
patriotic purpose, and on the night of the Wednesday before Martinmas,
in the year 1307, each of the three led to the place of meeting ten
others, all as resolute and liberty-loving as themselves. These
thirty-three good and true men, thus assembled at the midnight hour in
the meadow of Ruetli, united in a solemn oath that they would devote
their lives and strength to the freeing of their country from its
oppressors. They fixed the first day of the coming year for the
beginning of their work, and then returned to their homes, where they
kept the strictest secrecy, occupying themselves in housing their cattle
for the winter and in other rural labors, with no indication that they
cherished deeper designs.

During this interval of secrecy another event, of a nature highly
exasperating to the Swiss, is said to have happened. It is true that
modern critics declare the story of this event to be solely a legend and
that nothing of the kind ever took place. However that be, it has ever
since remained one of the most attractive of popular tales, and the
verdict of the critics shall not deter us from telling again this
oft-repeated and always welcome story.

We have named two of the many tyrannical governors of Switzerland, the
deputies there of Albert of Austria, then Emperor of Germany, whose
purpose was to abolish the privileges of the Swiss and subject the free
communes to his arbitrary rule. The second named of these, Gessler,
governor of Uri and Schwyz, whose threats had driven Werner to
conspiracy, occupied a fortress in Uri, which he had built as a place of
safety in case of revolt, and a centre of tyranny. "Uri's prison" he
called this fortress, an insult to the people of Uri which roused their
indignation. Perceiving their sullenness, Gessler resolved to give them
a salutary lesson of his power and their helplessness.

On St. Jacob's day he had a pole erected in the market-place at Altdorf,
under the lime-trees there growing, and directed that his hat should be
placed on its top. This done, the command was issued that