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Me from my delights to sever,

Me to torture, me to task?
Fleecy locks, and black complexion
Cannot forfeit nature's claim;
Skins may differ, but affection

Dwells in white and black the same.

3. Why did all-creating nature

Make the plant for which we toil?
Sighs must fan it, tears must water,
Sweat of ours must dress the soil.
Think, ye masters, iron hearted,
Lolling at your jovial boards;
Think how many backs have smarted
For the sweets your cane affords.

4. Is there, as ye sometimes tell us,
Is there one who reigns on high?
Has he bid you buy and sell us,
Speaking from his throne, the sky!
Ask him, if your knotted scourges,
Matches, blood-extorting screws,
Are the means that duty urges,
Agents of his will to use?

5. Hark! he answers-wild tornadoes,
Strewing yonder sea with wrecks;
Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,
Are the voice with which he speaks.
He, foreseeing what vexations

Afric's sons should undergo,
Fix'd their tyrants' habitations
Where his whirlwinds answer-No.

6. By our blood in Afric wasted,

Ere our necks receiv'd the chain;
By the mis'ries that we tasted,
Crossing in your barks the main;
By our suff'rings since ye brought us
To the man-degrading mart;
All sustain'd by patience, taught us
Only by a broken heart.

7. Deem our nation brutes no longer,
Till some reason ye shall find
Worthier of regard, and stronger
Than the color of our kind.
Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings
Tarnish all your boasted pow'rs,
Prove that you have human feelings,
Ere you proudly question ours.

WILLIAM TELL.

1. BEFORE Switzerland was delivered from the dominion of Austria, the governor of Uri, named Geisler, resided in the city of Altorf; who by abusing the power intrusted to him, iniquitously exercised the most cruel tyranny. Interest or caprice alone directed his decisions; justice and reason were banished; judgment was sold; the innocent were punished arbitrarily; and the ministers of the tyrant committed the most enormous crimes with impunity. He at last added extravagance to cruelty; and having caused a pole to be erected in a public square, and placed a hat upon it, he ordered, under pain of death, that all who passed that way, should bow down before it, and reverence it as they did his own person.

2. In the same canton, there lived a man of rough but frank manners, named William Tell, who, having come on business to Altorf, passed through the public square, and beholding the pole with the hat upon it, hesitated a moment between wonder and laughter; but not knowing its object, and but little curious to inquire, he negligently passed this emblem of power. The irreverence paid to the pole, and the infraction of the severe edict, were speedily reported to the governor, who, being filled with rage, ordered the criminal to be instantly arrested, and brought before him. He received the offender with the savage look of cruelty peculiar to a base mind, jealous of its authority, and ferocious when it is made the subject of derision.

3. Villain, said he, is this your respect for my power and

For what offence was William Tell condemned to death?

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decrees? But you shall feel their full weight, and afford a wretched proof that my dignity is not to be affronted with impunity. Astonished, but not intimidated, at this invective, Tell freely inquired of what he was accused, as he was unconscious of any crime. Contempt and derision of my power, said the tyrant. I had no notice, replied Tell, of your edict; and without being instructed, I should never have dreamed of saluting a pole, or that irreverence to a hat was high treason against the state. Enraged at the tone and air of derision with which this was pronounced, and the reasonableness of the still more humiliating reply, he commanded the unfortunate man to be dragged away to the lowest dungeon of the castle, and there, loaded with chains, await his execution.

4. While the tyrant was revolving the subject in his own mind, and endeavoring to invent some unheard-of punishment, which should strike terror into the Swiss, the only and beloved son of Tell was brought into his presence by the soldiers. His ingenious cruelty immediately conceived the barbarous design of compelling the virtuous Tell to become the murderer of his son. For this purpose, he ordered the child to be placed at a considerable distance, and then placing an apple upon his head, he offered a full pardon to the wretched parent, if he should strike it off with an

arrow.

5. Horror-struck at the proposal, he fell at the feet of the tyrant, and besought him to take his life, and not insist upon the fatal experiment. But the anguish of the parent only strengthened the determination of Geisler; and the bow and a quiver of arrows were brought forth. The governor, attended by his satellites, now proceeded to the square, to witness the scene. The unhappy boy was conducted into the centre, bound to the pole, and the fatal apple was placed upon his head. Geisler thrilled with joy at the preparations; but a groan of horror arose on all sides from the populace who had assembled.

6. Although Tell was accounted the most skilful archer in the canton, it was some time before he could obtain his asual self-possession. At last, with a firm hand, he placed, the arrow; and when he drew the fatal spring, the specta

On what condition was William Tell pardoned?

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