CHAP. LVIII. 1809. 30. Insurrection Its early and furth, from whence the Marquis Chastellar set out, to take the command of the regular troops which were to enter the province to direct and support the operations of the peasants.* So unanimous, however, was the feeling with which the country was animated, that at the first intelli- in the Tyrol. gence of hostilities having commenced, the insurrection complete burst forth at once with uncontrollable fury in all quar- success. ters. The night of the 8th April was fixed for the event April 8. on which the destinies of the Tyrol were to depend. The signal agreed on was throwing sawdust into the Inn, which floated down, and was soon discovered and understood by the peasants. In addition to this, a plank with a little pennon affixed to it was launched in the Upper Innthal, and safely borne down the stream, amidst the throbbing anxieties of all who witnessed it. Bale-fires at the same time were lighted on a hundred hills; and many a ruined castle blazed with a long-unwonted glow. The peasantry of the Innthal were warned, besides, by women and children, who carried from house to house little balls of paper, upon which were written the words 66 Hofer, 77, es ist zeit,” it is time. Roused by these various methods, 1 Gesch. A. the inhabitants every where rose on the 8th April as one 80. Inglis, ii. man, and with their redoubted rifles on their shoulders 168, 169. Barth. 82, descended every lateral glen and ravine,1 till their 84 accumulated force, gaining strength at every step as it *The following proclamation was issued by the Archduke John:-"Tyrolese! I am come to keep the promise which I made to you on 4th November 1805, that the time would certainly come when I should have the joy of again finding myself among you. The peace of Presburg was the cause of all your subsequent disasters; it broke the tie which had connected Austria with the Tyrol for five hundred years; but even then the father of your country recollected his beloved children. He stipulated that the Tyrol should remain undivided, retain all its rights and liberties; in a word, that, in the same manner, and with the same rights and titles with which the Emperor had possessed it, it should be made over to Bavaria, and not otherwise.' The King of Bavaria solemnly promised to your deputies, that not an iota of the constitution should be changed;' that he honoured the grief which the Tyrolese felt for their ancient masters; but that he hoped, by constant care and attention, to make himself equally regretted by them. By the royal proclamation, 14th January 1806, it was declared, that the Tyrolese should not only retain their ancient rights and liberties, but their welfare should be promoted in every possible manner.' Where has been the promised attention to your interests; where the regard to the constitution you have so bravely defended? The clergy were their first object of attack: this was their plan, because they were the intrepid defenders of the throne and the altar. With bitter feelings, the Tyrolese beheld their abbeys and monasteries destroyed, the property of the churches stolen and carried away, their bishops and priests exiled, their churches profaned, their chalices sold to the Jews. Your knights and nobles, who, before the institution of the tributary law, were all your equals, and never a burden to the country, are all destroyed-your cities and courts of justice are ruined-your sons or brothers hurried away by a cruel conscription to fight the battles of the oppressor against Austria, their lawful master, or Spain, or Russia. CHAP 1809. 31. the Puster thal. advanced, rolled in an impetuous torrent down the great valleys of the Inn, the Eisach, and the Adige. Marquis Chastellar, with the regular troops under his command, about ten thousand strong, but very deficient Successes in in cavalry, was on the Klagenfurth frontier, to take advantage of, and support, these enthusiastic movements, and crossed the frontier at daybreak on the 9th. Their progress through the Pusterthal resembled rather the triumph of a victorious, than the march of an invading army. Mothers brought their children out to look at them; blind old men were led out of their cottages that they might hear and bless their gallant countrymen ; all endeavoured to get near, that they might touch their clothes, or even kiss their horses. But more serious occupation awaited them. On arriving in the neighbourhood of St Lorenzo, in their way down towards Brixen, they found the peasants in considerable numbers already engaged with the enemy. The rising there had been precipitated two days before the time agreed on, by an attempt of the Bavarians on the important bridge at that place, which commanded the communication between Brunecken and the upper part of the valley. The peasants rose to prevent its destruction; and Wrede, aware of the importance of suppressing such a revolt in the outset, immediately marched to the spot, with two April 9. The Bavarians have refused the bank-bills of the Austrians in payment; and CHAP. LVIII. 1809. thousand men and three guns, from Brixen. With these, however, he made no impression on the assembled peasants stationed in the woods and rocks; but being joined on the day following by a reinforcement of a thousand foot-soldiers and six hundred horse, he renewed his April 10. attack with better success; and the Tyrolese, unable to block up the main road against such formidable odds, were beginning to give way, when the arrival of seventy light horse, and a few companies of chasseurs, the advanced guard of Chastellar, who instantly charged with loud shouts, changed the fate of the day. The Tyrolese, suspending the combat, fell on their knees to return thanks, or embraced the Austrians with tears of joy; while the Bavarians, thunderstruck at this unexpected apparition, fled in disorder down the valley, and when they arrived at the tremendous bridge of Laditch* broke into two divisions, the first of which, under Bisson, hotly pursued by the peasants, ascended the Eisach towards Sterzing and the Brenner; while the second, two thousand strong, under General Lemoine, followed the course of that river down to Bolsano. Here, however, they were met by the landsturm, or levée en masse, 1 Gesch. A. of the valley of the Adige, which had descended to that Hofer, 79, place in great strength, from the upper part of the Etch- 81. Barth. thal; and though some forced their way through to iii. 86, 87. Trent, the greater part, with the general himself, were made prisoners.1 92, 96. Pel. the Bava While these events were going on below Brixen, the Bavarian regiments which had ascended to Sterzing en- 32. encountered Hofer with the landsturm of the Passeyrthal Defeat of the and the Vintschgau, on the plain of the Sterzinger Moos, rians by near the town and castle of that name. The Bavarians Hofer at the Sterzinger advanced in good order, and with an intrepid air, over Moos. the open ground which lay between them and the April 10. enemy; but as they approached the Tyrolese, who were posted on rocks and in thickets around its outer circumference, they were staggered by the close and deadly fire of the rifles, and fell back in confusion. The guns were next brought up; but they could produce little impres * A well-known bridge, composed of a single arch between tremendous rocks, at the point where the road from Innspruck over the Brenner, from Carinthia by the Pusterthal, and from Italy up the Eisach, unite.-Gesch. A. HOFER, p. 64, 78; and Personal Observation. 1809. CHAP. sion upon the enemy scattered among, and in great LVIII. part concealed in, the broken ground and woods; and the gunners were soon laid prostrate by the unerring aim of the mountain sharpshooters. Encouraged by this success, the Tyrolese now burst from their covert, and rushing forward, like the La Vendée peasants, in loose array, but with desperate resolution, using their spears, halberts, and the but-ends of their muskets, fell with loud shouts upon the enemy. After a violent struggle of a few minutes' duration the Bavarians gave way, and, being enveloped on all sides, laid down their arms to the number of three hundred and ninety, besides two hundred and forty who were killed or wounded in this sanguinary combat. The column which succeeded, however, under Bisson and Wrede, contrived to force its way, by a circuitous route, up the pass of the Brenner; but it was grievously harassed in the defile of Lueg by the peasants, who broke down bridges and barricaded the highway by heaps of trees thrown across the road, and only penetrated through to the neighbourhood of Innspruck after sustaining a heavy loss. All these columns in their retreat committed the greatest excesses, burning houses, and massacring the inhabitants wherever they had it in their power; while the Austrian authorities exhi82. Pel. iii. bited, at the same time, the noble contrast of a proclamation issued expressly to restrain the feelings of revenge arising in the breasts of the people.1* 1 Gesch. A. Hofer, 81, 87. Barth. 98, 100. 33. On the same day the peasantry of the Upper and Lower Innthal rose in arms; and so active were the Capture of exertions made that, early on the morning of the 11th, Innspruck by the peasants twenty thousand men, directed by Teimer, were assemof the Upper bled on the heights around Innspruck. In no condition to resist so formidable an assemblage, the Bavarians, who had only fifteen hundred men and a few guns in the Innthal. April 11. "Tyroleans! you have proved yourselves worthy to be free, and of that constitution which the Bavarians promised to respect, but have violated. You have proved yourselves worthy of liberty: do not, therefore, give way to your indignation, and become ungovernable, but act with unanimity and coolness, determined to die or be free. To injure the feeble is contemptible: no real Tyrolese will allow himself to be accused of such a deed. To follow the example of those who have nothing to lose, who molest and plunder the peaceful and inoffensive, would inevitably sow the seeds of dissension among us, and cause our ruin. Without discipline, order, and obedience, nothing will prosper: in the name of the Emperor and the Archduke, I will punish every one who disobeys his orders, and treat every one who commits excesses as an enemy to his country.-JOSEPH BARON HORMAYER."-See Gesch. A. HOFER, 87, 88. LVIII. 1809. place, withdrew into the town. But there they were CHAP. speedily assailed by a furious crowd of peasants, who carried successively the external barriers, the bridge of the Inn, the artillery, and finally penetrated into the principal square, shouting out, "Long live the Emperor Francis! Down with the Bavarians!" They soon made themselves masters of the place. A frightful scene ensued. The Bavarians in some places surrendered, and begged for quarter, in others continued the combat with undaunted resolution; and in the mêlée several bloody deeds were committed, which, in their cooler moments, the Tyrolese would have been the first to condemn. General Kinkel, after making a brave resistance, was struck down; Colonel Dietfurth, who atoned for his former conduct by the gal-Gesch. A. lantry of his last hours, desperately wounded, was made Hofer, 88, prisoner, and soon after died; and the whole garrison of 100, 106. Innspruck, consisting of one entire regiment, four guns, a 88. few cavalry, and several depots of battalions, were either taken or slain.1 91. Barth. Pel. iii. 87, 34. occurred on An event here took place which strongly marked the peculiar character of the warfare which had commenced. Dietfurth, the Bavarian colonel, had made himself pecu- Striking inciliarly obnoxious in the province, by the severity of his dent which public, and licentiousness of his private conduct, as well the capture of Innspruck. as the contemptuous expressions which he had used with reference to the people.* As he lay half fainting from loss of blood in the guard-house of Innspruck, he asked who had been the leader of the peasants. "No one," they replied: "we fought equally for God, the Emperor, and our native country."-"That is surprising," said Dietfurth, "for I saw him frequently pass me on a white horse." The report of this incident produced an extraordinary impression upon the people, by whom it was universally believed, thenceforth, that St James, the patron of the town of Innspruck, and who was always represented, in the battles with the Moors, mounted on a white horse, had combated at their head. The cavalry which escaped from Innspruck took refuge in a convent near the bridge of Volders; but Spechbacher, having *He had publicly boasted at Munich, "that with his regiment and two squadrons he would disperse the ragged mob," and had been promoted instead of reproved for his oppressive and licentious conduct.-Gesch. A. Hofer, 90, 91. |