CHAP. LVIII. 1809. Thither Lefebvre shortly after bent his steps, having remained in Salzburg only long enough to put the town in a sufficient posture of defence, and establish the magazines necessary for the operations in that quarter. On the 10th May he broke up and advanced to Reichenhall, a May 10. considerable burgh still in the open country, but within a mile of the mountains, which there rise in awful majesty abrupt and sheer from the plain, to all appearance impervious by man. On the day following, the May 11. French in great force advanced to the entrance of the passes. Notwithstanding their immense superiority of numbers, such was the natural strength of the defiles,* that it is doubtful if they would have succeeded in making good their entrance had the Tyrolese guards been all at their stations. But it was Ascension-day, and a large proportion of the peasants were absent at church, or engaged in their devotions or sports on the holiday: so that the contest fell on four hundred regular troops, and a few companies of sharpshooters, who, notwithstanding, for several hours kept at bay a whole Bavarian division. At length the barricades and formidable defences in the tremendous defile of Strub were forced, and the Tyrolese driven, combating all the way up the frightful gorges of the Achen, back to the neighbourhood of Wörgl. There 1 Pel. iii. 99, they stood firm, as they were reinforced by Chastellar 138, 142. with a few thousand regular troops; but on the same day intelligence arrived that the passes of the Inn, at 159. the entrance of the plain,1 had been forced by Deroy * No defiles in Europe exceed in romantic interest those which lie between Reichenhall and Wörgl, through which the high-road passes. Winding by the side of torrents, through narrow ravines shut in by walls of rock, which barely leave room for a carriage-way; often blown out of the mass, between precipices a thousand or fifteen hundred feet high; scaling heights to appearance almost perpendicular, by an angle of elevation unknown in any other European road; descending break-neck declivities by the side of roaring streams, in the midst of forests of matchless beauty, surmounted by romantic peaks, starting up in endless fantastic forms, six or seven thousand feet in height, they possess a degree of interest to the lover of the picturesque exceeding even the far-famed passage of the Simplon. The most ardent imagination, furnished with the widest recollection of romantic scenery, can figure nothing approaching to the sublimity of the defile of Strub, where the road, apparently blocked up by a wall of rock two thousand feet in height, is cut through a narrow passage beside the roaring stream, and then winds its devious way amidst overhanging forests of dark pine, intermingled with huge crags of brilliant colours, and surmounted by bare peaks silvered with snow. The grandest points in the vast amphitheatre of the Alps, are the valley of Berchtesgaden; the Konig See and defile of Strub, near Salzburg; the Via Mala in the Grisons; the defile of Gondo on the route of the Simplon; the valley of Gasteren, and Eschinen in the vale of Kandersteg, near the Gemmi; and the approach to the Grande Chartreuse in Savoy.— Personal Observation. 100. Barth. Gesch. A. CHAP. 1809. 41. and Wörgl. with another Bavarian division, the Thierseebach crossed, and that the enemy's outposts had already appeared before Kufstein. Finding himself thus threatened both from the side of Salzburg and Kufstein, Chastellar, who had only three Combats at thousand regular troops at his disposal, the remainder Feuer Singer being a body of as many Tyrolese peasants, without any other discipline than what they had acquired in their native valleys, resolved to take the initiative, and combat Lefebvre in the first instance, before Deroy came up. With this view he occupied the defile of Feuer Singer, which lies between the ravines of the Achen and the pass of Strub, and strengthened the gorge with some rude field-works: but the impetuous attack of the Bavarians, flushed with the victory of Abensberg, overcame every obstacle, and the Austrians, after a bloody struggle, were driven back at the point of the bayonet to their reserves, posted at the important position of Wörgl. Stationed there behind a rivulet, in a situation which commanded the junction of the roads from Kufstein and Salzburg, and barred the only access to Innspruck, Chastellar stood firm, and, with four thousand regular troops and six thousand peasants, gave battle to the enemy. The open and desolate plain of Wörgl, however, was unfavourable to the operations of the new levies, who were dispirited at finding themselves driven into the open country from the fastnesses which they had deemed impregnable; and their total want of cavalry rendered them incapable of opposing with success the numerous and powerful squadrons of Linange. The Bavarians were greatly superior in number, being eighteen thousand strong, with thirty pieces of cannon, while the united Tyrolese and Austrians hardly amounted to half that number. After a short combat, the Austrians were entirely defeated, with the loss of all their baggage, ammunition, and guns, seven in number; which, with five hundred prisoners, fell into the hands of the enemy.1 1 Gesch. A. Hofer, 157, 101, 102. 159. Pel. iii. Barth. 142, 148. Nothing now remained to prevent the conquest of the Lower Innthal by the Bavarians; and if they had pushed on with vigour and rapidity, they might have struck a seasonable terror into the insurgents by the capture of their principal leaders and magazines at Innspruck. But CHAP. 1809. Bavarians. May 19. they advanced so tardily, that they gave the Tyrolese time to recover from their consternation; reinforcements poured down from the Brenner, and the mountains of Scharnitz, to the fugitives from Wörgl; and Chastellar, 42. Innspruck who narrowly escaped being made prisoner by the enemy, taken by the met with Hormayer at Steinach, and concerted measures for future operations. Slowly moving up the valley of the Inn, Lefebvre found the resistance of the people increase with every step he advanced; Schwatz was only carried by assault after a desperate resistance, and burned, in the struggle, to the ground. Frightful atrocities marked the steps of the invaders; the Bavarians wreaking their vengeance on the unhappy peasants, for the real or imaginary injuries they had received, by the perpetration of the most revolting military cruelties. Old men, women, and children, were massacred indiscriminately; and every village from which a shot had issued was committed to the flames. Meanwhile Chastellar, who had been strongly irritated at the Tyrolese, on account of the furious conduct of some drunken peasants at Hall, who tried to pull him from his horse from indignation at his retreat, had repassed the Brenner, and the Innthal May 14. was again thrown back upon its own resources. On the 19th, Lefebvre appeared before Innspruck, which sub- May 19. mitted without resistance; the minds even of the heroic leaders of the insurrection being stunned by the mis- 1 Moniteur, fortunes which were now accumulating around them on Pel. iii. 104, all sides; and justly considering a prolonged resistance 106. Gesch. hopeless after Vienna had opened its gates to the enemy, 158, 165. and the Archduke John had evacuated the Carinthian mountains.1 June 8, 1809. A. Hofer, violates his promises, and The Archduke John, on occasion of his first disaster on the Piave, on 30th April, wrote to Hofer in these 43. words :-"Do not allow the misfortunes of Germany to The Archmake you uneasy: we have done our duty, and will duke John defend the Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Salz- orders and burg, to the last drop of our blood. It is in that for- evacuates tress, aided by our brave mountaineers, that we ought Styria and the Tyrol. to conquer or die, for the glory of our ancestors and our arms. I shall not retire to Hungary." And on 3d May he wrote to Chastellar:-" Our misfortunes in Germany have obliged me to abandon the offensive, and to direct CHAP. LVIII. 1809. my attention to the provinces, which are of so much consequence to Austria. Do not be alarmed: the Tyrol shall never be forsaken: I will defend it and the interior of Austria to the last extremity." It would have been well for the Archduke John and the Austrian monarchy if he had adhered to these resolutions, and thrown himself into the Tyrol, when obliged to evacuate Italy by the disasters in Bavaria; as in that case he would have been in a situation to have taken part in the important and probably decisive operation projected by the Archduke Charles at Lintz, on the 22d May, and protected the interior of the monarchy as effectually as under the ramparts of Vienna. Instead of this, he at once disobeyed his brother's orders and those of the Aulic Council, and violated his own promises, 1 Gesch. A. by retiring into Hungary, and thereby not only caused the whole fruits of the battle of Aspern to be lost, but saved Napoleon from a disastrous retreat.1 Hofer, 140, 141. 44. Desperate in the Tyrol, of the peasantry. Affairs in the Tyrol were now wellnigh desperate; for, at the very time when these disasters were accumulating on the north of the Brenner, a strong French force of state of affairs fifteen thousand men, under Baraguay D'Hilliers and and firmness Rusca, detached by Eugene after his victory on the Piave, to which the peasants, now stripped of the regular troops for the defence of the Innthal, had nothing to oppose, was rapidly advancing up the valley of the Adige, and had already occupied Roveredo and menaced Trent. Chastellar, despairing of success, had made arrangements for leaving the country; and Hormayer, who, with unshaken resolution, was still endeavouring to rouse the peasantry in the lateral valleys of the Innthal, found them in most places indignant at the retreat of the Austrians, and fast returning to their homes. General Buol, indeed, with two thousand five hundred men and six guns, still occupied the crest of the Brenner; but he was in a wretched condition, starving with cold, destitute of ammunition, and almost without provisions. In these mournful circumstances, it was the invincible tenacity of the peasantry in the upper Innthal, and elevated parts of the Brenner and Scharnitz ranges of mountains, which restored the fortunes of the campaign. Eisensticken, Hofer's aide-decamp, Spechbacher, and Friar Haspinger, vied with each other in the indefatigable ardour with which they roused CHAP. LVIII. 1809. the people. The first fell himself on his knees to General Buol, when he was preparing to abandon the Brenner, and by the vehemence of his entreaties prevailed upon him to keep his ground in that important position. Hofer, who in the first instance was thrown into the deepest dejection by the misfortunes impending over his country, and rendered incapable of active exertion, was roused by their example to nobler efforts; and appearing at the head of his peasants, forced the Passeyrthal, and commenced a fierce attack on the Bavarians at Presburg, near Mount Ysel, which, although unsuccessful, struck May 25. no small alarm into the enemy, from the gallantry with which it was conducted. This combat renewed the warlike ardour of the Tyrolese, who flocked from all quarters in great strength to the general place of gathering on Mount Ysel, which ancient prophesy led them to expect 1 Pel. iii. 106, was to be the theatre of great events to the Tyrol; while 107.; iv. 31, Lefebvre, who deemed the affairs of the provinces settled A. Hofer, by the capture of Innspruck, and submission of the 217, 229. authorities in that place, had set out for Salzburg, leaving 150. Deroy at the capital, with eight thousand foot, eight hundred horse, and twenty pieces of cannon.1 32. Gesch. Barth. 138, 45. for the battle The forces engaged on the 29th May, on the heights of Mount Ysel, were, in numerical strength, very unequal: the Tyrolese having nine hundred infantry, seventy Peparations horse, and five guns of the Austrian troops, besides a of Innspruck. motley assemblage of peasants, to the number of twenty May 28. thousand men-individually brave and skilled in the use of arms, but altogether undisciplined and unaccustomed to act together in large masses; while the Bavarians had only eight thousand foot, eight hundred horse, and twenty-five guns. The numerical superiority, however, of the former was fully counterbalanced by their great inferiority in discipline, cavalry, and artillery; so that the real military strength of both sides might be considered as very nearly equal. Hofer did his best to compensate Gesch. A. his weakness in cavalry, by stationing his followers, as much as possible, in the wooded heights at the foot of Hist. des Mount Ysel, where horsemen could not penetrate; but Paix, 9, 257. the town was not to be carried by such a blockade, and Erz. Johan. the impetuous spirit of the peasantry led them to demand 1809, 102. an immediate assault.2 Their spirits had been elevated to VOL. XII. Ꮓ 2 Pel. iv. 41. Hofer, 231, 232. Schoell. Trait. de Feldzug |