They met to interchange oaths, and not to utter exciting speeches; “words could not weigh in the balance with that decisive night, brooding under cover of its darkness the resurrection of a nation, with those mountains, stars, rocks, and waves, and with the sword ready to be drawn in the most sacred of causes.” They were summoned, and were bidden in a few brief sentences, uttered in a low tone, to choose; and they chose wisely and greatly; they chose liberty, born of the heavens, breathing of all their odors, and radiant with all their hues. With hands uplifted to the starry firmament, Fürst, Stauffacher, and Melchthal, with subdued and slow accent, their comrades repeating after them, proclaimed, “We swear in the presence of God, before whom kings and people are equal, to live or die for our fellow-countrymen; to undertake and sustain all in common; neither to suffer injustice, nor to commit injury; to respect the rights and property of the Count of Hapsburg; to do no violence to the imperial bailiffs, but to put an end to their tyranny.” One of the men who at that momentous assembly engaged each other by the pledge of “All for each and each for all,” was William Tell, a fisher of the lake and a hunter of chamois, of Bürglen, a half-hour from Altdorf in Uri, and a son-in-law of Walter Fürst. In the mean time, Gessler thought he perceived that the people walked abroad with more confidence, and carried in their looks a haughtier expression; when satisfied that the spirit of resistance was ripe, with a view to confirm his suspicions, he determined to put down by force the first symptoms of disaffection, and invented a crime to trap the most daring and dangerous. His hat, surmounted by the Austrian crown, was placed on the top of a pole, erected in the market-place of Altdorf, and all who passed by were ordered to uncover their heads, and bow submissively before this symbol of the imperial sovereignty: “It is the lord governor’s good will and pleasure The cap shall have like honor as himself; And all shall reverence it with bended knee And heads uncovered.... His life and goods are forfeit to the crown That shall refuse obedience to the order.”