Saxo Grammatĭcus tells nearly the same story of Toki, the Danish hero, and Harald; but in this trial of skill Toki killed Harald.--_Danorum Regum Heroumque Historia_ (1514). Reginald Scot says that Puncher shot a penny placed on his son’s head, but made ready another arrow to slay the Duke Remgrave who had set him the task (1584). ⁂ It is said of Domitian, the Roman emperor, that if a boy held up his hands with the fingers spread, he could shoot eight arrows in succession through the spaces without touching one of the fingers. William of Cloudesley, to show the king his skill in shooting, bound his eldest son to a stake, put an apple on his head, and, at the distance of 300 feet, cleft the apple in two without touching the boy. I have a son is seven years old, He is to me full dear, I will hym tye to a stake ... And lay an apple upon his head, And go six score paces hym fro, And I myselfe with a broad arrow Will cleve the apple in two. Percy, _Reliques_. Similar feats of skill are told of Adam Bell and Clym of the Clough. In Altorf market-place, the spot is still pointed out where Tell shot the apple from his son’s head, and a plaster statue stands where the patriot stood when he took his aim. See Roman fire in Hampden’s bosom swell, And fate and freedom in the shaft of Tell. Campbell, _Pleasures of Hope_, i. (1799). ⁂ The legend of William Tell has furnished Florian with the subject of a novel in French (1788); A. M. Lemierre with his tragedy of _Guillaume Tell_ (1766); Schiller with a tragedy in German, _Wilhelm Tell_ (1804); Knowles with a tragedy in English, _William Tell_ (1840); and Rossini with the opera of _Guglielmo Tell_, in Italian (1829). =Tellus’s Son,= Antæos, son of Posei´don and Gê, a giant wrestler of Lib´ya, whose strength was irresistible so long as he touched his mother (_earth_). Herculês, knowing this, lifted him into the air, and crushed him to death. Near the town of Tingis, in Mauritania, is a hill in the shape of a man, called “The Hill of Antæos,” and said to be his tomb. So some have feigned that Tellus’ giant son Drew many new-born lives from his dead mother; Another rose as soon as one was done, And twenty lost, yet still remained another. For when he fell and kissed the barren heath, His parent straight inspired successive breath, And tho’ herself was dead, yet ransomed him from death. Phineas Fletcher, _The Purple Island_, ix. (1633). ⁂ Similarly, Bernardo del Carpio lifted Orlando in his arms, and squeezed him to death, because his body was proof against any instrument of war.