enemies, the latter has not written like a friend: for it felt that to publish the knowledge of the truth, was to publish its own shame. The Tyrolese have but few authors amongst them; and it appears that the Imperial interdict prevented the publication of a chronicle prepared by Baron Hormayr.'* p. 74.

The attachment of the Tyrolese to the House of Austria, so heroically signalized, so basely requited, was not in its origin wholly unreasonable. The county had originally fallen to the dukes of Austria by the bequest of Margaret, the last of the race of the counts of Tyrol, whose first husband was of the house of Habsburg; and the possession was confirmed to the Austrian dukes by the Emperor Charles IV. Many of the princes of Austria, appreciating the value of the Tyrol, favoured its inhabitants; and to Frederic IV., the Tyrolese ascribe the foundation of their comparatively free constitution, and many privileges and immunities, which, till of late, were considered sacred. The country was governed by a representative body, convened from time to time, and composed of deputies from the Four Estates. When, by the treaty of Presburg, in Dec. 1805, the Tyrolese, as yet unsubdued, were abandoned by Austria, and given over to the detested rule of Bavaria, it was expressly stipulated and solemnly promised, that they should retain inviolate their former institutions and government. These promises were forgotten. The ancient constitution was undermined; the representative body was annihilated; public funds and ecclesiastical property were confiscated; and a novel and vexatious taxation was introduced; and thus, the ancient hatred of Bavaria was inflamed by the oppression resulting both from public ordinances and private aggression. These circumstances, without taking into account the romantic affection once entertained by these mountaineers for their Emperor, will sufficiently account for the national revolt which effected the first expulsion of the French and Bavarians from the Tyrol in 1809. Moreover, the peasantry were encouraged and directed by their priests, without whose aid, when did a cause ever become national, or an insurrection ever prove successful? It is when patriotism is allied to religious feeling, or to that fanaticism which is instead of religion, that it becomes invincible t. One of the most singular circumstances

*By far the most authentic work, Mr. L. says, is Professor Bertholdy's Kriege der Tyroler Landleute in yahre 1809."

66

6

+ Among the leaders of the Tyrolese, was a Capuchin friar, Joachim Haspinger, who, throughout the war, whether buried in the silence of his cell, or combating in the first rank, manifested true devotion to the cause of his country. He was of athletic make, and always appeared, even in battle, dressed in his dark-brown mantle with corded waist; using no other weapon than a massive ebony crucifix, by appeals

that attended this first successful struggle, and which tended to raise the enthusiasm of the Tyrolese to the loftiest pitch, is thus narrated.

،

Among the Bavarian officers in Inspruck was Colonel Dittfurt, a man of a bold and uncompromising disposition, and of distinguished military reputation. He was believed to have been one of the main causes of the separation of the Tyrol from Austria, and for this reason was detested by the peasantry. Moreover, having been sent early in the year into the Fliemsthal, to enforce the new system of recruiting set on foot by the Bavarians, but resisted by the Tyrolese, he committed divers excesses, and added to the measure of deep hatred, which was treasured up against him till this day of retribution. At Inspruck, he saw too late what was the real character of the peasantry he had despised and oppressed; and, escape being impossible, resolved to die with honour. He fought in the streets with desperate valour, and though pierced with four balls, still urged resistance. Even when in the hands of the Tyrolese, he continued to rave with impotent wildness over schemes of vengeance, and modes of defending the country. But the circumstance particularly alluded to, was the following:-that, while lying faint and bleeding in the guard-house, whither he had been conveyed after capture, he suddenly turned to the by-standers, and asked with solemnity, who it was that headed the Tyrolese in their attack? Upon being told, that the peasants had had no particular chief, but had combated, each and all, for God, the Emperor, and their homes; the wounded man insisted that this could not be, for that he had frequently seen their leader pass him in the melée, upon a white charger. Upon this wild expression, the enthusiastic fancy of the peasantry immediately raised the belief, that they had really been headed by one of the blessed saints, visible to their foes, though invisible to them, and were more than ever convinced of the holiness and justice of their cause. pp. 82, 83.

But the same success did not attend the operations of the main Austrian armies either in Germany or in Italy; and the defeat they sustained at Wörgl, on the 13th of May, laid Inspruck again open to the enemy. The march of the French and Bavarians from Wörgl up the Innthal, was marked by the most unjustifiable and barbarous ravages. The whole of that glorious valley,' smiling with a luxuriant vegetation, and rejoicing in the spring, was converted into one widely deformed and desolate field of destruction. The villages and hamlets were given to the flames; the town of Schwatz was completely destroyed; and the population which escaped the sword, were driven forth like sheep

to which he, one moment, raised the devotional heroism of his companions, and the next, made use of it to break the heads of the Bavarians. His nom de guerre among the soldiers of that nation was Rothbarb, or the Red-beard, from a long flowing appendage of that kind, which he kept trimmed with great care.'

to herd upon the mountains. The enemy re-entered Inspruck on the 19th. Towards the close of the month, the Bavarian General received orders to pursue the Austrian division under Marquis Chastelar; but, in descending the Lower Innthal, he was attacked, along his whole line, by a peasant army hastily collected, and aided by about 1000 regulars with five guns. After two desperate battles, in which the Bavarians lost fifteen times as many as their opponents, the former effected a rapid retreat; and the Tyrolese, on the 31st of May, made their second triumphal entry into Inspruck.

The ensuing six weeks were occupied by the Tyrolese leaders, in endeavouring to bring into order the civil and military affairs of the country; but the want of money, the difficulty of preserving any thing like military discipline in the patriotic levies, the improvidence of the peasantry, and Bavarian intrigues, rendered these attempts wholly ineffective. At length, on the 17th of July, the news of the decisive battle of Wagram and the armistice of Zuaim came like a thunderbolt upon the people and their chiefs.' The Austrian General Buol was still in the Tyrol; but he now received positive orders to evacuate the country, and to surrender it to the Bavarians. At this intelligence, the confusion and dismay were extreme. The Tyrolese at first insisted that the orders received must be forged, and refused to allow the regulars to retire. It was at this crisis that Hofer, who till now had appeared only as the leader of the brave landsturm of his native valley, was called upon to assume the office of commander in chief of the patriot army. At length, the Austrians were permitted to depart. Baron Hormayr, the Imperial Intendant, and many of the chiefs and functionaries, despairing of the cause of liberty in the Tyrol, followed in their train. Among them was Speckbacher himself, who had organized the first rising in the Innthal, and distinguished himself by the energy and fire of his character, but who had suffered himself to be persuaded by the Austrians, that nothing more was to be done for his country.

While descending the southern side of the Brenner, it happened that they met Andrew Hofer. Though they passed without halting, Speckbacher's person had caught the quick eye of the Tyrolese chief, and an expression of surprise and grief was borne by the wind to the ear of the former. It was unnoticed by his companions, but sank deep into the bosom of him to whom it was addressed. A mental struggle was the consequence, which terminated in his secretly quitting the car at the first post-house, procuring a horse, and rejoining Hofer. The result of their interview was a renewed determination, never to desert the Tyrol while a blow could be struck in its defence.' p. 102.

For some time, however, Hofer remained at his cottage in the Passeyrthal, undecided how to act; and Speckbacher, Haspinger, and the other chiefs had recommenced hostilities, before he had

been roused from the apathy which was the effect of a fit of despondency. On the last day of July, the Duke of Dantzic had entered Inspruck, and threatened to advance with his whole force over the Brenner into the Southern Tyrol. Early on the 4th of August, in consequence of pre-concerted measures, the sound of the alarm-bells, tolling simultaneously from vale and mountain, summoned the peasantry to recommence hostilities; and from that morning till the 11th, the deep vale of the Eisack, the open plains of the Sterzinger-moos, and the heights of the Brenner, were the scenes of a terrible struggle between the Tyrolese and their invaders, which completely undeceived the Duke as to the character of the peasantry he had thought by a blow to subdue. Before three days, he returned, a fugitive, and in disguise, to Inspruck. On the 13th of August, another fiercely contested action took place between the Tyrolese under Hofer and the remains of the Bavarian army. The former had taken post on their favourite field of battle, the Iselberg; and the Duke formed his line opposite to them, between the city and the foot of the mountains. The bridge of the Sill, and the church-yard of Wiltau, within whose sacred precincts lay interred the bodies of their brethren slain in the former engagements, were again the scenes of the most terrible slaughter. But victory remained with the Tyrolese; and before sunset, the humbled invaders had evacuated Inspruck, and were in full retreat down the Innthal, with Speckbacher hanging on their rear. On the 15th, Hofer made once more his triumphal entry into the mountain capital. The conduct of this extraordinary man during his brief administration of the government, is thus described by Mr. Latrobe.

ན

Considering the difficulties by which this singular man was surrounded, and his apparent inadequacy for the duties of legislation which he was now imperatively called upon to discharge, it is truly wonderful to consider how much was effected, as long as transient tranquillity, and the absence of disturbances from without, allowed him to proceed with his labours with little interruption. He partially succeeded in restoring the ancient form of government as it had existed before the Bavarian innovations. He levied such taxes as were absolutely necessary for the continuance of the war, re-opened the courts of justice, and coined money to some amount. The enthusiastic love borne to his person by his countrymen, caused the regulations which he saw fit to publish for the general good in the name of the Emperor, to be generally respected and during the course of the two following months, both the civil and military organization of the country were in a measure redeemed from the disorder into which the varying fortune of the summer had cast them. Many of those chiefs who had fled from the Tyrol with the Austrian regulars, as we have related, when at the end of July the affairs of their native country seemed desperate, had heard in their places of retreat, with mingled joy and shame, of the unhoped for and brilliant successes of their brethren; and now thirsted to re

turn. Among the number of these were Eisensteckken and Sieberer, who made their appearance at Inspruck on Sept. 28th, as bearers of letters from the Emperor, with three thousand ducats, the first pecuniary assistance that the court of Austria had afforded, and of a gold chain and medal from Francis to Andrew Hofer. It was long before the latter could be persuaded to see them, so deeply did he feel hurt by their having abandoned him in the hour of distress. The 4th of October was appointed for a solemn day of thanksgiving. The Bishop of Wiltau celebrated High Mass in the great Franciscan Church of the Holy Cross; the Te Deum was chanted; and, after the exhortation, Hofer kneeling at the foot of the mausoleum of Maximilian, was decorated by the hand of the prelate, with the gift of the Emperor, amidst the tears and acclamations of a great multitude of the Tyrolese. Many anecdotes are upon record with regard to the conduct of this patriotic man during this period. He took up his abode with his adjutants and attendants at the castle, but affected no state, retaining his national costume and long black beard, and the rustic simplicity of his He was always accessible to his countrymen, who continued to address him by the familiar name of Anderl,' and none gave him the title of Your Excellency,' but those who desired to ridicule him. He lived in the most simple manner, and it is calculated that the daily cost of his personal entertainment at Inspruck, did not exceed one florin, or fifteen pence of our money. Unfeigned and heartfelt devotional simplicity seems to have been one of his principal characteristics. Whoever dined with him, was afterwards required to join him in his evening devotion, whatever might be the difference of their rank: “we have eaten together," said he to them, “let us also pray together.”

manners.

pp. 285-287.

The sequel is melancholy and tragical. After some temporary successes, Speckbacher was defeated by the Bavarians at Melek'; and on the 25th of October, the enemy was again in possession of Inspruck. In the mean time, the Peace of Vienna was signed, and Hofer received an order from the Archduke to lay down his arms. He obeyed, and issued a proclamation advising his companions throughout Tyrol to follow his example. Suddenly, in an evil hour, a Tyrolese officer, named Kolb, undertook to incite the people to believe that the official report of the Peace, received by Hofer, was a forged document. This idea was unfortunately embraced by Hofer himself, who, a few days after his first proclamation, issued another, urging his countrymen to continue the war. The consequence was, that, during the greater part of November, the peasants were induced to maintain an unequal struggle against overwhelming numbers, in which more Tyrolese blood was shed than during the whole war hitherto. By the middle of December, opposition was at an end. Some of the leaders in this last struggle had fallen with honour; Kolb and others escaped over the mountains to Austria; but a number, less fortunate, were taken prisoners and shot, for having borne arms after the publication of Eugene Beauharnois's proclamation