the city in which he was aided by a murderous fire poured upon the
Bavarians by the citizens from windows and towers. The people of the
upper valley of the Inn flocked to the aid of their fellows, and the
place, with its garrison, was soon taken, despite their obstinate
defence. Dittfurt, the Bavarian leader, who scornfully refused to yield
to the peasant dogs, as he considered them, fought with tiger-like
ferocity, and fell at length, pierced by four bullets.
One further act completed the freeing of the Tyrol from Bavarian
domination. The troops under Colonel Wrede had, as we have related,
crossed the Brenner on a temporary bridge, and escaped the perils of the
pass. Greater perils awaited them. Their road lay past Sterzing, the
scene of Hofer's victory. Every trace of the conflict had been
obliterated, and Wrede vainly sought to discover what had become of
Bäraklau and his battalion. He entered the narrow pass through which the
road ran at that place, and speedily found his ranks decimated by the
rifles of Hofer's concealed men.
After considerable loss the column broke through, and continued its
march to Innsbruck, where it was immediately surrounded by a triumphant
host of Tyrolese. The struggle was short, sharp, and decisive. In a few
minutes several hundred men had fallen. In order to escape complete
destruction the rest laid down their arms. The captors entered Innsbruck
in triumph, preceded by the military band of the enemy, which they
compelled to play, and guarding their prisoners, who included two
generals, more than a hundred other officers, and about two thousand
men.
In two days the Tyrol had been freed from its Bavarian oppressors and
their French allies and restored to its Austrian lords. The arms of
Bavaria were everywhere cast to the ground, and the officials removed.
But the prisoners were treated with great humanity, except in the single
instance of a tax-gatherer, who had boasted that he would grind down the
Tyrolese until they should gladly eat hay. In revenge, they forced him
to swallow a bushel of hay for his dinner.
The freedom thus gained by the Tyrolese was not likely to be permanent
with Napoleon for their foe. The Austrians hastened to the defence of
the country which had been so bravely won for their emperor. On the
other side came the French and Bavarians as enemies and oppressors.
Lefebvre, the leader of the invaders, was a rough and brutal soldier,
who encouraged his men to commit every outrage upon the mountaineers.
For some two or three months the conflict went on, with varying
fortunes, depending upon the conditions of the war between France and
Austria. At first the French were triumphant, and the Austrians withdrew
from the Tyrol. Then came Napoleon's defeat at Aspern, and the Tyrolese
rose and again drove the invaders from their country. In July occurred
Napoleon's great victory at Wagram, and the hopes of the Tyrol once more
sank. All the Austrians were withdrawn, and Lefebvre again advanced at
the head of thirty or forty thousand French, Bavarians, and Saxons.
The courage of the peasantry vanished before this threatening invasion.
Hofer alone remained resolute, saying to the Austrian governor, on his
departure, "Well, then, I will undertake the government, and, as long as
God wills, name myself Andrew Hofer, host of the Sand at Passeyr, and
Count of the Tyrol."
He needed resolution, for his fellow-chiefs deserted the cause of their
country on all sides. On his way to his home he met Speckbacher,
hurrying from the country in a carriage with some Austrian officers.
"Wilt thou also desert thy country!" said Hofer to him in tones of sad
reproach.
Another leader, Joachim Haspinger, a Capuchin monk, nicknamed Redbeard,
a man of much military talent, withdrew to his monastery at Seeben.
Hofer was left alone of the Tyrolese leaders. While the French advanced
without opposition, he took refuge in a cavern amid the steep rocks that
overhung his native vale, where he implored Heaven for aid.
The aid came. Lefebvre, in his brutal fashion, plundered and burnt as he
advanced, and published a proscription list instead of the amnesty
promised. The natural result followed. Hofer persuaded the bold Capuchin
to leave his monastery, and he, with two others, called the western
Tyrol to arms. Hofer raised the eastern Tyrol. They soon gained a
powerful associate in Speckbacher, who, conscience-stricken by Hofer's
reproach, had left the Austrians and hastened back to his country. The
invader's cruelty had produced its natural result. The Tyrol was once
more in full revolt.
With a bunch of rosemary, the gift of their chosen maidens, in their
green hats, the young men grasped their trusty rifles and hurried to the
places of rendezvous. The older men wore peacock plumes, the Hapsburg
symbol. With haste they prepared for the war. Cannon which did good
service were made from bored logs of larch wood, bound with iron rings.
Here the patriots built abatis; there they gathered heaps of stone on
the edges of precipices which rose above the narrow vales and passes.
The timber slides in the mountains were changed in their course so that
trees from the heights might be shot down upon the important passes and
bridges. All that could be done to give the invaders a warm welcome was
prepared, and the bold peasants waited eagerly for the coming conflict.
From four quarters the invasion came, Lefebvre's army being divided so
as to attack the Tyrolese from every side, and meet in the heart of the
country. They were destined to a disastrous repulse. The Saxons, led by
Rouyer, marched through the narrow valley of Eisach, the heights above
which were occupied by Haspinger the Capuchin and his men. Down upon
them came rocks and trees from the heights. Rouyer was hurt, and many of
his men were slain around him. He withdrew in haste, leaving one
regiment to retain its position in the Oberau. This the Tyrolese did not
propose to permit. They attacked the regiment on the next day, in the
narrow valley, with overpowering numbers. Though faint with hunger and
the intense heat, and exhausted by the fierceness of the assault, a part
of the troops cut their way through with great loss and escaped. The
rest were made prisoners.
The story is told that during their retreat, and when ready to drop with
fatigue, the soldiers found a cask of wine. Its head was knocked in by a
drummer, who, as he stooped to drink, was pierced by a bullet, and his
blood mingled with the wine. Despite this, the famishing soldiery
greedily swallowed the contents of the cask.
A second _corps d'armée_ advanced up the valley of the Inn as far as
the bridges of Pruz. Here it was repulsed by the Tyrolese, and retreated
under cover of the darkness during the night of August 8. The infantry
crept noiselessly over the bridge of Pontlaz. The cavalry followed with
equal caution but with less success. The sound of a horse's hoof aroused
the watchful Tyrolese. Instantly rocks and trees were hurled upon the
bridge, men and horses being crushed beneath them and the passage
blocked. All the troops which had not crossed were taken prisoners. The
remainder were sharply pursued, and only a handful of them escaped.
The other divisions of the invading army met with a similar fate.
Lefebvre himself, who reproached the Saxons for their defeat, was not
able to advance as far as they, and was quickly driven from the
mountains with greatly thinned ranks. He was forced to disguise himself
as a common soldier and hide among the cavalry to escape the balls of
the sharp-shooters, who owed him no love. The rear-guard was attacked
with clubs by the Capuchin and his men, and driven out with heavy loss.
During the night that followed all the mountains around the beautiful
valley of Innsbruck were lit up with watch-fires. In the valley below
those of the invaders were kept brightly burning while the troops
silently withdrew. On the next day the Tyrol held no foes; the invasion
had failed.
Hofer placed himself at the head of the government at Innsbruck, where
he lived in his old simple mode of life, proclaimed some excellent
laws, and convoked a national assembly. The Emperor of Austria sent him
a golden chain and three thousand ducats. He received them with no show
of pride, and returned the following naïve answer: "Sirs, I thank you. I
have no news for you to-day. I have, it is true, three couriers on the
road, the Watscher-Hiesele, the Sixten-Seppele, and the Memmele-Franz,
and the Schwanz ought long to have been here. I expect the rascal every
hour."
Meanwhile, Speckbacher and the Capuchin kept up hostilities successfully
on the eastern frontier. Haspinger wished to invade the country of their
foes, but was restrained by his more prudent associate. Speckbacher is
described as an open-hearted, fine-spirited fellow, with the strength of
a giant, and the best marksman in the country. So keen was his vision
that he could distinguish the bells on the necks of the cattle at the
distance of half a mile.
His son Anderle, but ten years of age, was of a spirit equal to his own.
In one of the earlier battles of the war he had occupied himself during
the fight in collecting the enemy's balls in his hat, and so obstinately
refused to quit the field that his father had him carried by force to a
distant alp. During the present conflict, Anderle unexpectedly appeared
and fought by his father's side. He had escaped from his mountain
retreat. It proved an unlucky escape. Shortly afterwards, the father was
surprised by treachery and found himself surrounded with foes, who tore
from him his arms, flung him to the ground, and seriously injured him
with blows from a club. But in an instant more he sprang furiously to
his feet, hurled his assailants to the earth, and escaped across a wall
of rock impassable except to an expert mountaineer. A hundred of his men
followed him, but his young son was taken captive by his foes. The king,
Maximilian Joseph, attracted by the story of his courage and beauty,
sent for him and had him well educated.
The freedom of the Tyrol was not to last long. The treaty of Vienna,
between the Emperors of Austria and France, was signed. It did not even
mention the Tyrol. It was a tacit understanding that the mountain
country was to be restored to Bavaria, and to reduce it to obedience
three fresh armies crossed its frontiers. They were repulsed in the
south, but in the north Hofer, under unwise advice, abandoned the
anterior passes, and the invaders made their way as far as Innsbruck,
whence they summoned him to capitulate.
During the night of October 30 an envoy from Austria appeared in the
Tyrolese camp, bearing a letter from the Archduke John, in which he
announced the conclusion of peace and commanded the mountaineers to
disperse, and not to offer their lives as a useless sacrifice. The
Tyrolese regarded him as their lord, and obeyed, though with bitter
regret. A dispersion took place, except of the band of Speckbacher,
which held its ground against the enemy until the 3d of November, when
he received a letter from Hofer saying, "I announce to you that Austria
has made peace with France, and has forgotten the Tyrol." On receiving
this news he disbanded his followers, and all opposition ceased.
The war was soon afoot again, however, in the native vale of Hofer, the
people of which, made desperate by the depredations of the Italian bands
which had penetrated their country, sprang to arms and resolved to
defend themselves to the bitter end. They compelled Hofer to place
himself at their head.
For a time they were successful. But a traitor guided the enemy to their
rear, and defeat followed. Hofer escaped and took refuge among the
mountain peaks. Others of the leaders were taken and executed. The most
gallant among the peasantry were shot or hanged. There was some further
opposition, but the invaders pressed into every valley and disarmed the
people, the bulk of whom obeyed the orders given them and offered no
resistance. The revolt was quelled.
Hofer took refuge at first, with his wife and child, in a narrow hollow
in the Kellerlager. This he soon left for a hut on the highest alps. He
was implored to leave the country, but he vowed that he would live or
die on his native soil. Discovery soon came. A peasant named Raffel
learned the location of his hiding-place by seeing the smoke ascend from
his distant hut. He foolishly boasted of his knowledge; his story came
to the ears of the French; he was arrested, and compelled to guide them
to the spot. Two thousand French were spread around the mountain; a
thousand six hundred ascended it; Hofer was taken.
[Illustration: THE LAST DAY OF ANDREAS HOFER.]
His captors treated him with brutal violence. They tore out his beard,
and dragged him pinioned, barefoot, and in his night-dress, over ice and
snow to the valley. Here he was placed in a carriage and carried to the
fortress of Mantua, in Italy. Napoleon, on news of the capture being
brought to him at Paris, sent orders to shoot him within twenty-four
hours.
He died as bravely as he had lived. When placed before the firing-party
of twelve riflemen, he refused either to kneel or to allow himself to be
blindfolded. "I stand before my Creator," he exclaimed, in firm tones,
"and standing will I restore to him the spirit he gave."
He gave the signal to fire, but the men, moved by the scene, missed
their aim. The first fire brought him to his knees, the second stretched
him on the ground, where a corporal terminated the cruel scene by
shooting him through the head. He died February 20, 1810. At a later
date his remains were borne back to his native alps, a handsome monument
of white marble was erected to his memory in the church at Innsbruck,
and his family was ennobled.
Of the two other principal leaders of the Tyrolese, Haspinger, the
Capuchin, escaped to Vienna, which Speckbacher also succeeded in
reaching, after a series of perils and escapes which are well worth
relating.
After the dispersal of his troops he, like Hofer, sought concealment in
the mountains where the Bavarians sought for him in troops, vowing to
"cut his skin into boot-straps if they caught him." He attempted to
follow the mountain paths to Austria, but at Dux found the roads so
blocked with snow that further progress was impossible. Here the
Bavarians came upon his track and attacked the house in which he had
taken refuge. He escaped by leaping from its roof, but was wounded in
doing so.
For the twenty-seven days that followed he roamed through the snowy
mountain forests, in danger of death both from cold and starvation. Once
for four days together he did not taste food. At the end of this time he
found shelter in a hut at Bolderberg, where by chance he found his wife
and children, who had sought the same asylum.
His bitterly persistent foes left him not long in safety here. They
learned his place of retreat, and pursued him, his presence of mind
alone saving him from capture. Seeing them approach, he took a sledge
upon his shoulders, and walked towards and past them as though he were a
servant of the house.
His next place of refuge was in a cave on the Gemshaken, in which he
remained until the opening of spring, when he had the ill-fortune to be
carried by a snow-slide a mile and a half into the valley. It was
impossible to return. He crept from the snow, but found that one of his
legs was dislocated. The utmost he could do, and that with agonizing
pain, was to drag himself to a neighboring hut. Here were two men, who
carried him to his own house at Rinn.
Bavarians were quartered in the house, and the only place of refuge open
to him was the cow-shed, where his faithful servant Zoppel dug for him a
hole beneath the bed of one of the cows, and daily supplied him with
food. His wife had returned to the house, but the danger of discovery
was so great that even she was not told of his propinquity.
For seven weeks he remained thus half buried in the cow-shed, gradually
recovering his strength. At the end of that time he rose, bade adieu to
his wife, who now first learned of his presence, and again betook
himself to the high paths of the mountains, from which the sun of May
had freed the snow. He reached Vienna without further trouble.
Here the brave patriot received no thanks for his services. Even a small
estate he had purchased with the remains of his property he was forced
to relinquish, not being able to complete the purchase. He would have
been reduced to beggary but for Hofer's son, who had received a fine
estate from the emperor, and who engaged him as his steward. Thus ended
the active career of the ablest leader in the Tyrolean war.
_THE OLD EMPIRE AND THE NEW._
During the Christmas festival of the year 800 the crown of the imperial
dignity was placed at Rome on the head of Charles the Great, and the
Roman Empire of the West again came into being, so far as a dead thing
could be restored to life. For one thousand and six years afterwards
this title of emperor was retained in Germany, though the power
represented by it became at times a very shadowy affair. The authority
and influence of the emperors reached their culmination during the reign
of the Hohenstauffens (1138 to 1254). For a few centuries afterwards the
title represented an empire which was but a quarter fact, three-quarters
tradition, the emperor being duly elected by the diet of German princes,
but by no means submissively obeyed. The fraction of fact which remained
of the old empire perished in the Thirty Years' War. After that date the
title continued in existence, being held by the Hapsburgs of Austria as
an hereditary dignity, but the empire had vanished except as a tradition
or superstition. Finally, on the 6th of August, 1806, Francis II., at
the absolute dictum of Napoleon, laid down the title of "Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation," and the long defunct empire was
finally buried.
The shadow which remained of the empire of Charlemagne had vanished
before the rise of a greater and more vital thing, the empire of France,
brought into existence by the genius of Napoleon Bonaparte, the
successor of Charles the Great as a mighty conqueror. For a few years it
seemed as if the original empire might be restored. The power of
Napoleon, indeed, extended farther than that of his great predecessor,
all Europe west of Russia becoming virtually his. Some of the kings were
replaced by monarchs of his creation. Others were left upon their
thrones, but with their power shorn, their dignity being largely one of
vassalage to France. Not content with an empire that stretched beyond
the limits of that of Charlemagne or of the Roman Empire of the West,
Napoleon ambitiously sought to subdue all Europe to his imperial will,
and marched into Russia with nearly all the remaining nations of Europe
as his forced allies.
His career as a conqueror ended in the snows of Muscovy and amid the
flames of Moscow. The shattered fragment of the grand army of conquest
that came back from that terrible expedition found crushed and dismayed
Germany rising into hostile vitality in its rear. Russia pursued its
vanquished invader, Prussia rose against him, Austria joined his foes,
and at length, in October, 1813, united Germany was marshalled in arms
against its mighty enemy before the city of Leipsic, the scene of the
great battles of the Thirty Years' War, nearly two centuries before.
Here was fought one of the fiercest and most decisive struggles of that
quarter century of conflict. It was a fight for life, a battle to decide
the question of who should be lord of Europe. Napoleon had been brought
to bay. Despising to the last his foes, he had weakened his army by
leaving strong garrisons in the German cities, which he hoped to
reoccupy after he had beaten the German armies. On the 16th of October
the great contest began. It was fought fiercely throughout the day, with
successive waves of victory and defeat, the advantage at the end resting
with the allies through sheer force of numbers. The 17th was a day of
rest and negotiation, Napoleon vainly seeking to induce the Emperor of
Austria to withdraw from the alliance. While this was going on large
bodies of Swedes, Russians, and Austrians were marching to join the
German ranks, and the battle of the 18th was fought between a hundred
and fifty thousand French and a hostile army of double that strength,
which represented all northern and eastern Europe.
The battle was one of frightful slaughter. Its turning-point came when
the Saxon infantry, which had hitherto fought on the French side,
deserted Napoleon's cause in the thick of the fight, and went over in a
body to the enemy. It was an act of treachery whose fatal effect no
effort could overcome. The day ended with victory in the hands of the
allies. The French were driven back close upon the walls of Leipsic,
with the serried columns of Germany and Russia closing them in, and
bent on giving no relaxation to their desperate foe.
The struggle was at an end. Longer resistance would have been madness.
Napoleon ordered a retreat. But the Elster had to be crossed, and only a
single bridge remained for the passage of the army and its stores. All
night long the French poured across the bridge with what they could take
of their wagons and guns. Morning dawned with the rush and hurry of the
retreat still in active progress. A strong rear-guard held the town, and
Napoleon himself made his way across the bridge with difficulty through
the crowding masses.
Hardly had he crossed when a frightful misfortune occurred. The bridge
had been mined, to blow it up on the approach of the foe. This duty had
been carelessly trusted to a subaltern, who, frightened by seeing some
of the enemy on the river-side, set fire hastily to the train. The
bridge blew up with a tremendous explosion, leaving a rear-guard of
twenty-five thousand men in Leipsic cut off from all hope of escape.
Some officers plunged on horseback into the stream and swam across.
Prince Poniatowsky, the gallant Pole, essayed the same, but perished in
the attempt. The soldiers of the rear-guard were forced to surrender as
prisoners of war. In this great conflict, which had continued for four
days, and in which the most of the nations of Europe took part, eighty
thousand men are said to have been slain. The French lost very heavily
in prisoners and guns. Only a hasty retreat to the Rhine saved the
remainder of their army from being cut off and captured. On the 20th
Napoleon succeeded in crossing that frontier river of his kingdom with
seventy thousand men, the remnant of the grand army with which he had
sought to hold Prussia after the disastrous end of the invasion of
Russia.
[Illustration: A GERMAN MILK WAGON.]
Germany was at length freed from its mighty foe. The garrisons which had
been left in its cities were forced to surrender as prisoners of war.
France in its turn was invaded, Paris taken, and Napoleon forced to
resign the imperial crown, and to retire from his empire to the little
island of Elba, near the Italian coast. In 1815 he returned, again set
Europe in flame with war, and fell once more at Waterloo, to end his
career in the far-off island of St. Helena.
Thus ended the empire founded by the great conqueror. The next to claim
the imperial title was Louis Napoleon, who in 1851 had himself crowned
as Napoleon III. But his so-called empire was confined to France, and
fell in 1870 on the field of Sedan, himself and his army being taken
prisoners. A republic was declared in France, and the second French
empire was at an end.
And now the empire of Germany was restored, after having ceased to exist
for sixty-five years. The remarkable success of William of Prussia gave
rise to a wide-spread feeling in the German states that he should assume
the imperial crown, and the old empire be brought again into existence
under new conditions; no longer hampered by the tradition of a Roman
empire, but as the title of united Germany.