fire of grape shot, which swept the bridge; but the firmness and enthusiasm of the people overcame every obstacle, and they succeeded in forcing the pass, and capturing the cannon which defended it. The immediate consequence, was the evacuation of the town and the lower Inn Thal by the French troops. To this day, the inhabitants speak of this achievement, as well they may, with exultation; and point with pride to the walls which are literally riddled with grape shot, to mark the severity of the fire to which their countrymen were exposed.

The next important action in the war, was on a rocky ridge, between Reichenhall and Viedering, on the road from Salzburg to Worgel. The French and Bavarians, under the Duke of Dantzic, having captured Salzburg, after the fatal battle of Ratisbon, advanced towards the Tyrol, on the great road from Vienna to Inspruck. The Tyrolese, under Hofer, took post on a rocky eminence, surrounded by vast and precipitous mountains, immediately to the westward of a small lake which lies on the frontier of the Salzburg territory-It is impossible to imagine a scene of more perfect beauty, than the which was here selected as the field of battle. A lake of small dimensions not unlike Loch Achray, in Perthshire, spreads itself at the foot of lofty cliffs whose sides and base are clothed with luxuriant woods, and penetrates far into their lovely recesses. Green fields, and white cottages, and smiling orchards fringe the margin of the water, and occupy the narrow space which lies between the lake and the stupendous rocks by which it is surrounded. The road winds through this delightful region till it reaches the extremity of the lake, when it ascends the rugged and almost perpendicular cliffs which form its western boundary, and separate, on this side, the territories of Saltzburg from those of Tyrol.

It was on these cliffs that the Tyrolese took their station-Vast forests of larch and fir cover the higher parts of the mountains, and entirely concealed the peasants who occupied the passes. It was early on the morning of the 14th May, that the French troops, to the number of 28000, broke up from Reichenhall, where they had passed the night, and advanced along the margin of the lake, towards the ridge which the Tyrolese occupied.

A thick mist, very prevalent at daybreak in that country, at first concealed their movements; and the peasants were too inexperienced in the art of war, to have gained any previous intelligence of their approach.

They were saying their matin prayers on the morning of holy Thursday, which is kept with remarkable devotion by all the people, when the most advanced first perceived, through the mist which was beginning to rise, the sun glittering on the bayonets of the hostile troops that were advanc ing against them. The increasing warmth of the day shortly after dispelled the clouds, and the Tyrolese, from their station in the forest, beheld the long lines of infantry and cavalry, that were winding along then argin of the lake, and beginning to ascend the rugged eminence on which they were stationed. A dead silence prevailed throughout the whole patriot army; at this magnificent and animating spectacle, and in the pause of anxious suspence which ensued, they distinctly heard" the measured tread of marching men," which, more even than the immeasurable extent of their files bespoke the number and discipline of their enemies.

Before ascending into the higher parts of the forest, however, the French general, who had probably received intelligence that the peasants were stationed in ambush some where in the neighbourhood, halted the main body of his troops, and detached some light regiments in advance, to explore the wild and broken ascent that lay before him-The Tyrolese had the most express orders to conceal themselves with the utmost care from the enemy; and so admirably was this order obeyed by men who had been accustomed from their infancy to lie in ambush in the pursuit of game, that the French tirailleurs could perceive no traces of an enemy. They advanced nearly to the summit of the ridge, but the most perfect silence every where prevailed, and they perceived nothing but a dark and gloomy forest on both sides of the road, filled with aged trees and broken with underwood and precipices. The main body of the French, encouraged by this account, proceeded fearlessly to mount the pass; and their columns gradually became more disorderly as they toiled up the steep ascent, exposed to the

horizontal and burning rays of the sun, which now shone forth with unclouded splendor. The soldiers, who had kept their ranks in the valley below, became careless as they ascended, and the young and thoughtless among them lightened their toil by singing the gay and national airs of France.

But their g iety was not of long duration. No sooner was the main body of the French army mounted on the ascent, than, on the signal of a musket fired from a cliff in the centre, one instantaneous and overwhelming fire burst forth from all parts of the forest. Instantly the peasantry showed themselves in vast numbers, and issuing from their recesses, rushed upon the enemy, while a loud and universal shout announced the dreadful success of their discharge. The French column, amazed and terrified at this extraordinary attack, fell back in the utmost confusion, and in hurrying down to the valley, presented an indiscriminate mass on which the fire of their enemies took effect with unerring precision In less than ten minutes the whole column, amounting to nearly 18000, which had begun this perilous ascent, was precipitated back into the valley, while the whole road which they had occupied, was filled by the dead and the wounded, or choked up with fallen horses and broken waggons, overturned in the hurry of the flight. The Tyrolese pursued them into the beautiful little plain below, and then returned to their station among the precipices.

The French troops renewed the attack with their accustomed gallantry, during the remainder of the forenoon; but they were never able to sustain the desperate fire which the Tyrolese marksmen kept up from their inaccessible position. At length, tired with fruitless efforts, they drew off their troops, and the peasants, imagining that the victory was decided, left their posts in great numbers, in order to hear mass, and return thanksgiving at some neighbouring convents. The defence of the pass was now devolved to some Austrian battalions, and the French, perceiving the weakness of their opponents, renewed the attack, and after a vigorous opposition, succeeded in establishing themselves on the heights. The peasants, how

much soever they were enraged at seeing victory thus snatched from their grasp, were compelled to fall back to the interior of the country; and Innspruck, with the whole valley of the Inn, was again occupied by the hostile army.

The Austrians, with a degree of pusillanimity which can never be sufficiently reprobated, now abandoned the country to its merciless conquerors, and the Tyrolese were left to rely entirely on their own resources. The grand army had already destroyed the Austrian army in the plains of Bavaria, and had penetrated to the neighbourhood of Vienna; and the Tyrol had received no warlike supplies of any importance from their flattering allies. In this emergency, however, their own courage did not desert them. Speckbacher and Hofer, their two leaders, retired to their respective vallies on the opposite sides of the Inn, and roused the peasantry to a continuance of the war by their eloquence and their example. Speckbacher undertook himself to convey the intelligence of the ardour which prevailed in his valleys across the Inn that was then occupied by the French troops. He set out accordingly, accompanied by his tried friends George Zoppell and Simon Lechner, and endeavoured to penetrate across the part of the valley which seemed most weakly guarded. But in the middle of the night, while they were treading softly through a broken tract of rocks and underwood, they came upon a detachment of 100 Bavarian dragoons. They had gone too far to recede; but, nevertheless, they hesitated for a moment before they ventured to attack their opponents, who were leaning on their arms, round a blazing fire, with their horses standing on the outside of the circle. Being determined, however, to risk every thing rather than abandon their purpose, they levelled their rifles, and by their first discharge killed and wounded several of the enemy. Dur ing the confusion which ensued upon this unexpected attack, they loaded their pieces, and, hastily mounting the cliffs, fired again before their numbers were perceived. The Bavarians, conceiving that they were beset by a large body of the peasantry, fled in all directions; and Speckbacher, with

his brave associates; succeeded in penetrating before morning to the outposts of their countrymen.

One of the severest actions in the war was fought in the ravines of Mount Isel, on the 29th May. The ground here was singularly adapted for the peculiar warfare in which the Tyrolese excelled, and had been selected with much judgment by their leader, to awaken and animate the courage of the peasantry. It consists of a variety of wooded knolls, intersected with ravines, and surmounted by shapeless piles of bare rock. The great road which traverses these mountains, winds up these little valleys, and sweeps round the base of the wooded hills that surround them, through villages and detached cottages of the most perfect beauty. In one of the most secluded spots of this romantic district is situated the abbey of Wilten, to which a superstitious veneration has long been paid by the people. It had long ago been prophesied, that the neighbourhood of this abbey was to be the scene of the greatest triumphs to the Tyrolese; and the imaginations of the people, already warmed by the events of the war, looked forward with confidence to the accomplishment of the prophecy, in the events of the war which had assumed so interesting a character. Here, accordingly, Hofer collected all his forces, and exerted all his efforts to animate their spirits. The whole male population of the southern and eastern valleys were, by his exertions, assembled; a motley group, led on by leaders of various kinds, and bound together only by the sense of their common danger, and their common enthusiasm against the enemy.

During the night which preceded the battle, the friars traversed the different positions of the peasantry, and assisted in their devotions, and animated them to the courageous discharge of their duty. Many of these brave men actually joined the combatants, and were seen the next day, in their cowl and sandals, exposed to the hottest of the fire, sustaining the courage of the soldiers, and administering the consolations of religion to those that fell in battle. Nor let it be imagined that these efforts, on the part of the clergy, were either unnecessary or unattended with important consequences on the issue of the contest. The

Tyrolese were at this period entirely abandoned by the Austrians; they were pressed on all sides by the victorious arms of the French, and had retired to their central fastnesses as the last asylum of liberty and religion. To veteran troops, trained to war, led on by chiefs of consummate ability, and provided with every thing necessary for its prosecution, they could oppose only hasty levies, destitute of artillery and of equipments, and ignorant even of the rudiments of the military art." What is still more, to troops who had been tried in innumerable combats, and who had stood side by side during a long and eventful war, they had to oppose men entirely ignorant of each other, and distrustful, like all inexperienced troops, of the courage and fidelity of their comrades in arms. It was the clergy who supplied the link that bound this unconnected mass together-it was their exhortations that gave them a common feeling and animated them by common hopes-and it was the spirit which they kindled that communicated to the shepherds of the Alps, in their first essay in arms, that heroic and generous confidence in each other which constitutes at once the strength and the pride of veteran soldiers.

To such a pitch, accordingly, was the enthusiasm of the people wound up, that not only the little children, but even the women, were engaged in the great battle which ensued. The French observed, that the prisoners taken from them by the enemy were for the most part guarded by women only; and they at first imagined that this was done in derision; but the fact was, that the whole male population of the country had taken up arms, and were actually engaged in the front of the combat. The little children whose age would not permit them to bear arms, still lingered about the ranks of their fathers, and sought, by any little offices, to render themselves useful in the common cause. One of these, a son of Speckbacher, a boy of ten years, followed his father into the battle, and continued by his side in the hottest of the fire. He was several times desired by his father to retire, and at length, when he was obliged to obey, he ascended a little rising ground, where the balls from the French army struck, and gathering them in his hat, carried them to

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such of his countrymen as he understood were in want of ammunition. The action was long and severely contested from morning till night. The French and Bavarians advanced to the attack with the greatest resolution; while the Tyrolese were stationed on a succession of knolls, covered with fir, with their line extending across the little valleys that lay between them. In these valleys they had hastily constructed field-works, consisting of fir trees, felled and laid one above another, on which they stationed the bravest of their combat ants. It was impossible not to admire the firmness with which the French grenadiers advanced to the attack of these entrenchments, and the ardent and enthusiastic valour with which they were defended-columns after columns pressed on in admirable order and with an unfaltering step; and column after column were swept off by the unceasing rolling fire which the peasantry kept up. Some of these brave men even reached the foot of the barriers which had been constructed, and were beat down by the musquets of the Tyrolese, while struggling to penetrate through them. Nor was the valour displayed in the defence less eminently conspicuous. As the foremost of the peasants were swept off by the tirailleurs or the grape-shot of the Bavarians, their place was supplied by new combatants, eager to prolong the contest. The sons mounted the breach which their fathers had lately held, and, while weeping for the death of those most dear to them, resolutely and manfully continued the fight. Immediately in the rear were stationed the wives and daughters of those who were engaged, and, like their ancestors in the time of the Romans, relieved the sufferings of those who were wounded, and ceased not to animate the courage of those who survived, by their example and their

tears.

The war in this great battle accordingly assumed a character unknown in the warfare of modern times. Placed in the very centre of their country, and fighting for the defence of their homes, in the midst of their native villages, the pathetic incidents of individual distress were mingled with the cries, and tumult, and animation of the battle. The wounded were not

left, as in ordinary campaigns, to the cold and mercenary attendants of a field hospital. They were conveyed instantly to their relations and friends; and died in the midst of all who were dear to them, and in the sight" of their own hills which they had loved so well." Those who fell in the field were not cast, as in ordinary battles, into one undistinguished grave, but were conveyed to their native homes, and their remains preserved with religious care, and interred, with a mingled feeling of exultation and grief, in the sepulchres of their fathers. The Tyrolese felt all that sublime devotion to their country's welfare, which made the Spartan mothers rejoice over their sons who had fallen in battle; but the stern feelings of ancient virtue were tempered with the gentler spirit of christian devotion; and the graves of those who fell in the war, are still strewed with flowers, to mark the undecaying affection with which their memory is cherished by the little circle to whom their victory was known.

The victory, though long doubtful, at length declared for the righteous side. Before sunset the French and Bavarian ranks were entirely broken, and the shattered remnants of their forces fled in the utmost confusion to the valley of the Inn. Thither the Tyrolese pursued them; and the news of this great victory soon brought thousands of new levies to their standards. The patriotic force rolled onwards, increasing as it advanced, till they occupied all the heights that surrounded the town of Innspruck. Thirty thousand men, the flower of the whole population of the Tyrol, and animated to enthusiasm by their recent successes, hemmed in the united forces of the French and Bavarians, who still amounted to twenty-five thousand men. These troops, however, were completely dispirited by the defeat which they had experienced; and beheld, with anxious dread, on the evening of June 1st, the increasing bodies of the peasantry, who shewed themselves on all the rising grounds in the neighbourhood of the town. The spectacle, indeed, was such as might have struck terror into troops less acquainted than they were with the valour and animosity of their enemies. On all sides, as far as the eye could reach, they discerned large

numbers of men, whose activity and increasing columns indicated some great and immediate attack, and when night fell, a thousand fires on the surrounding mountains cast a red and fearful light on their own shattered and dispirited troops, and magnified to an incredible degree the numbers and formidable aspect of their opponents. The French remained under arms during the night, in hourly expectation of an attack; and, at length, drew off their forces, leaving Innspruck a second time, to the brave men who had fought so nobly for its relief.

The whole valley of the Inn, as far as the fortress of Kuffstein was now recovered by the Tyrolese, and they were on the point of bringing to a successful termination the siege of that fortress, when the fatal news of the battle of Wagram, and of the consequent armistice between the Austrians and French was received. Shortly after this mournful intelligence was made known, the Tyrolese found themselves attacked by a great and overwhelming force under the Duke of Dantzic, which successively drove them from the lower and upper Inn Thal, and compelled them to take refuge in the fastnesses between Sterzing and Innspruck, in the neighbourhood of Mount Brenner. The conduct of the Tyrolese leaders, on this occasion, afforded a striking example of that mixture of religious enthusiasm with fixed and intrepid conduct, which so strongly marks the character of that people. No sooner was Hofer informed of the armistice between France and Austria, and of the evacuation of Innspruck by the Austrian troops, than he retired to a hermitage in one of the farthest recesses of the great range of Alps which separates the valley of the Inn from that of the Adige. Here he spent some days in solitude and prayer, revolving, it may be imagined, in his mind the different plans which might be formed for the relief of his country; and preparing himself for the sufferings and insults and death, to which, in the prosecution of his heroic purposes, he might be exposed. Nor were these hours of solitary meditation without their influence upon the character of his future life. It was from them that he inhaled that holy spirit which rendered him superior to the temptations, and fitted him VOL. IV.

for the sufferings of the world; and it was here that that invincible resolution was formed which never deserted him during the subsequent hours of national or individual distress, and enabled him to die like a good Christian and a brave man, when his earthly career was terminated, within the walls of Mantua.

When Hofer and the other leaders of the insurrection issued from their retreat, they found the peasantry struggling to retard the enemy in their progress towards Sterzing. Already the French had gained the first ascents from Innspruck, and the outposts of the contending parties were stationed on the opposite sides of the torrent of Eisack. Steep rocks, fringed with brush-wood, rose above the bridge on the southern side, which the Tyrolese occupied. From these rocks they kept up an irregular fire on the French infantry, who were endeavouring to make their way through the defile. Notwithstanding the utmost courage on the part of the French, they found it impossible to make their way round a corner of the rock, where the road wound round the face of the precipice, full in view of the marksmen on the opposite bank. The grenadiers who advanced were instantly shot, and so great was the slaughter which this irregular fire occasioned, that, in a very short time, the road was literally blocked up with dead bodies. In this emergency, an officer of the Bavarian dragoons volunteered to gallop over the bridge with his squadron, and dispossess the pea santry who occupied the opposite cliffs. The Tyrolese, perceiving the cavalry winding up the ascent, set fire to the bridge, and, in a very short time, the flames spread rapidly along the fir beams on which it was supported. Not deterred, however, by this circumstance, nor by the dreadful fire which the peasantry directed towards this point, the brave horseman pressed forward, and spurring his horse with much difficulty over the dead bodies of his comrades, dashed into the midst of the flames. The eyes of both armies were anxiously turned upon this brave man, and the hoofs of his horse were just touching the rocks on the opposite side when the burning rafter broke, and he was precipitated from an immense height into the torrent beneath. A momentary pause, and a cessation from firing ensued, till the 4 F