That Erwin and Rosanna were mutually attached to each other, had been long suspected; but the fact was now made known throughout the Province, and the prejudice ran universally in favour of the lovers. The youths and damsels exclaimed loudly against the severity of the two fathers; and even the old people shook their heads, and let a few words escape them now and then about inexplicable obstinacy. They declared, that Melthal’s son and Tell’s daughter seemed to be formed for one another, that they ought to be united, and that united they would be some day or other, happen what might. Whenever they encountered the dejected lovers, they never failed to whisper some kind exhortations to be faithful, and to hope for better times; while on the other hand their young companions were anxious to furnish them with opportunities of meeting, and frequently in their village festivals the lovers suddenly found themselves encircled by the same chain of flowers, and heard every voice unite in singing the praise of their tender attachment and their wishes for its happy issue. A thousand ballads were made upon them, some plaintive, some gay, and they circulated from mouth to mouth with rapidity; for the love of Erwin and Rosanna was an affair, in which the whole Province felt itself interested. This universal good-will, however, advanced their cause but little. When they were alone, each spoke of eternal fidelity and insurmountable difficulties; each made it evident, that a secret sorrow weighed heavy upon the heart; each found fault with the father of the other, and declared him to be extremely in the wrong; while the father of the speaker was asserted to be perfectly in the right, at the same time that to obey him was acknowledged to be impossible. As to the two old men, they took no steps towards an explanation. It was rather observed, that from this time forward they shunned each other’s society, and seemed by the mutual distance thus suddenly created between them, to give their children a hint of the conduct, which they expected them also to adopt.