Germany from the Earliest Period Part 9

Napoleon's defeat, about this time, at Aspern having however compelled Lefebvre to return hastily to the Danube, leaving merely a part of the Bavarians with General Deroy in Innsbruck, the Tyrolese instantly seized the opportunity, and Hofer, Eisenstecken, and the gallant Speckbacher boldly a.s.sembled the whole of the peasantry on the mountain of Isel. Peter Thalguter led the brave and gigantic men of Algund. Haspinger, the Capuchin, nicknamed Redbeard, appeared on this occasion for the first time in the guise of a commander and displayed considerable military talent. An incessant struggle was carried on from the 25th to the 29th of May.[7] Deroy, repulsed from the mountain of Isel with a loss of almost three thousand men, simulated an intention to capitulate, and withdrew unheard during the night by m.u.f.fling the horses' hoofs and the wheels of the artillery carriages and enjoining silence under pain of death. Speckbacher attempted to impede his retreat at Hall, but arrived too late.[8] Teimer was accused of having been remiss in his duty through jealousy of the common peasant leaders. Arco escaped by an artifice similar to that of Deroy and abandoned the Scharnitz. The Vorarlbergers again spread as far as Kempten. Hormayr also returned, retook the reins of government, imposed taxes, flooded the country with useless law-scribbling, and, at the same time, refused to grant the popular demand for the convocation of the Tyrolean diet. After the victory of Aspern, the emperor declared, "My faithful county of Tyrol shall henceforward ever remain incorporated with the Austrian empire, and I will agree to no treaty of peace save one indissolubly uniting the Tyrol with my monarchy." During this happy interval, Speckbacher besieged the fortress of Cuffstein, where he performed many signal acts of valor.[9]

The disaster of Wagram followed, and, in the ensuing armistice, the Emperor Francis was compelled to agree to the withdrawal of the whole of his troops from the Tyrol. The Archduke John is said to have given a hint to General Buol to remain in the Tyrol as if retained there by force by the peasantry, instead of which both Buol and Hormayr hurried their retreat, after issuing a miserable proclamation, in which they "recommended the Tyrolese to the care of the duke of Dantzig."

Lefebvre actually again advanced at the head of thirty to forty thousand French, Bavarians and Saxons. The courage of the unfortunate peasantry naturally sank. Hofer alone remained unshaken, and said, on bidding Hormayr farewell, "Well, then, I will undertake the government, and, as long as G.o.d wills, name myself Andrew Hofer, host of the Sand at Pa.s.seyr, Count of the Tyrol." Hormayr laughed.--A general dispersion took place. Hofer alone remained. When, resolute in his determination not to abandon his native soil, he was on his way back to his dwelling, he encountered Speckbacher hurrying away in a carriage in the company of some Austrian officers. "Wilt thou also desert thy country?" was Hofer's sad demand. Buol, in order to cover his retreat, sent back eleven guns and nine hundred Bavarian prisoners to General Rusca, who continued to threaten the Pusterthal.

In the mountains all was tranquil, and the advance of the French columns was totally unopposed. Hofer, concealed in a cavern amid the steep rocks overhanging his native vale, besought Heaven for aid, and, by his enthusiastic entreaties, succeeded in persuading the brave Capuchin, Joachim Haspinger, once more to quit the monastery of Seeben, whither he had retired. A conference was held at Brixen between Haspinger, Martin Schenk, the host of the _Krug_, a jovial man of powerful frame, Kemnater, and a third person of similar calling, Peter Mayer, host of the Mare, who bound themselves again to take up arms in the Eastern Tyrol, while Hofer, in person, raised the Western Tyrol. Speckbacher, to the delight of the three confederates, unexpectedly made his appearance at this conjuncture. Deeply wounded by the reproach contained in the few words addressed to him by Hofer, he had, notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of his companions, quitted them on arriving at the nearest station and hastened to retake his post in defence of his country.

Lefebvre had already entered Innsbruck, and, according to his brutal custom, had plundered the villages and reduced them to ashes; he had also published a proscription-list[10] instead of the amnesty. A desperate resistance now commenced. The whole of the Tyrol again flew to arms; the young men placed in their green hats the bunch of rosemary gathered by the girl of their heart, the more aged a peac.o.c.k's plume, the symbol of the house of Habsburg, all carried the rifle, so murderous in their hands; they made cannons of larch-wood, bound with iron rings, which did good service; they raised abatis, blew up rooks, piled immense ma.s.ses of stone on the extreme edges of the precipitous rocks commanding the narrow vales, in order to hurl them upon the advancing foe, and directed the timber-slides in the forest-grown mountains, or those formed of logs by means of which the timber for building was usually run into the valleys, in such a manner upon the most important pa.s.ses and bridges, as to enable them to shoot enormous trees down upon them with tremendous velocity.

Lefebvre resolved to advance with the main body of his forces across the Brenner to Botzen, whither another corps under Burscheidt also directed its way through the upper valley of the Inn, the Finstermunz, and Meran, while a third under Rusca came from Carinthia through the Pusterthal, and a fourth under Peyry was on the march from Verona through the vale of the Adige. These various _corps d'armee_, by which the Tyrol was thus attacked simultaneously on every point, were to concentrate in the heart of the country. Lefebvre found the Brenner open. The Tyrolese, headed by Haspinger, had burned the bridges on the Oberau and awaited the approach of the enemy on the heights commanding the narrow valley of Eisach. The Saxons under Rouyer were sent in advance by Lefebvre to shed their blood for a foreign despot. Rocks and trees hurled by the Tyrolese into the valley crushed numbers of them to death. Rouyer, after being slightly hurt by a rolling ma.s.s of rock, retreated after leaving orders to the Saxon regiment, composed of contingents from Weimar, Gotha, Coburg, Hildburghausen, Altenburg, and Meiningen, commanded by Colonel Egloffstein, to retain its position in the Oberau. This action took place on the 4th of August.

The Saxons, worn out by the fatigue and danger to which they were exposed, were compelled, on the ensuing day, to make head in the narrow vale against overwhelming numbers of the Tyrolese, whose incessant attacks rendered a moment's repose impossible. Although faint with hunger and with the intensity of the heat, a part of the troops under Colonel Egloffstein succeeded in forcing their way through, though at an immense sacrifice of life,[11] and fell back upon Rouyer, who had taken up a position at Sterzing without fighting a stroke in their aid, and who expressed his astonishment at their escape. The rest of the Saxon troops were taken prisoners, after a desperate resistance, in the dwelling-houses of Oberau.[12] They had lost nearly a thousand men. The other _corps d'armee_ met with no better fate. Burscheidt merely advanced up the valley of the Inn as far as the bridges of Pruz, whence, being repulsed by the Tyrolese and dreading destruction, he retreated during the dark night of the 8th of August. His infantry crept, silent and unheard, across the bridge of Pontlaz, of such fatal celebrity in 1703, which was strictly watched by the Tyrolese. The cavalry cautiously followed, but were betrayed by the sound of one of the horses' feet. Rocks and trees were in an instant hurled upon the bridge, crus.h.i.+ng men and horses and blocking up the way. The darkness that veiled the scene but added to its horrors. The whole of the troops shut up beyond the bridge were either killed or taken prisoner. Burscheidt reached Innsbruck with merely a handful of men, completely worn out by the incessant pursuit. Rusca was also repulsed, between the 6th and the 11th of August (particularly at the bridge of Lienz), in the Pusterthal, by brave Antony Steger. Rusca had set two hundred farms on fire. Twelve hundred of his men were killed, and his retreat was accelerated by Steger's threat to roast him, in case he fell into his hands, like a scorpion, within a fiery circle. Peyry did not venture into the country.

Lefebvre, who had followed to the rear of the Saxon troops from Innsbruck, bitterly reproached them with their defeat, but, although he placed himself in advance, did not succeed in penetrating as far as they had up the country. At Mauls, his cavalry were torn from their saddles and killed with clubs, and he escaped, with great difficulty, after losing his c.o.c.ked hat. His corps, notwithstanding its numerical strength, was unable to advance a step further. The Capuchin hara.s.sed his advanced guard from Mauls and was seconded by Speckbacher from Stilfs, while Count Arco was attacked to his rear at Schonberg by mult.i.tudes of Tyrolese. The contest was carried on without intermission from the 5th to the 10th of August. Lefebvre was finally compelled to retreat with his thinned and weary troops.[13] On the 11th, Deroy posted himself with the rearguard on the mountain of Isel.

The Capuchin, after reading ma.s.s under the open sky to his followers, again attacked him on the 13th. A horrible slaughter ensued. Four hundred Bavarians, who had fallen beneath the clubs of their infuriated antagonists, lay in a confused heap. The enemy evacuated Innsbruck and the whole of the Tyrol.[14] Count Arco was one of the last victims of this b.l.o.o.d.y campaign.

The _Sandwirth_, placed himself at the head of the government at Innsbruck. Although a simple peasant and ever faithful to the habits of his station,[15] he laid down some admirable rules, convoked a national a.s.sembly, and raised the confidence of the people of Carinthia, to whom he addressed a proclamation remarkable for dignity.

He hoped, at that time, by summoning the whole of the mountain tribes to arms and leading them to Vienna, to compel the enemy to accede to more favorable terms of peace. Speckbacher penetrated into the district of Salzburg, defeated the Bavarians at Lofers and Unken, took one thousand seven hundred prisoners, and advanced as far as Reichenhall and Melek. The Capuchin proposed, in his zeal, to storm Salzburg and invade Carinthia, but was withheld by Speckbacher, who saw the hazard attached to the project, as well as the peril that would attend the departure of the Tyrolese from their country. His plan merely consisted in covering the eastern frontier. His son, Anderle, who had escaped from his secluded Alp, unexpectedly joined him and fought at his side. Speckbacher was stationed at Melek, where he drove Major Rummele with his Bavarian battalion into the Salzach, but was shortly afterward surprised by treachery. He had already been deprived of his arms, thrown to the ground, and seriously injured with blows dealt with a club, when, furiously springing to his feet, he struck his opponents to the earth and escaped with a hundred of his men across a wall of rock unscalable save by the foot of the expert and hardy mountaineer. His young son was torn from his side and taken captive. The king, Maximilian Joseph, touched by his courage and beauty, sent for him and had him well educated.--The Capuchin, who had reached Muhrau in Styria, was also compelled to retire.

The peace of Vienna, in which the Tyrolese were not even mentioned, was meanwhile concluded. The restoration of the Tyrol to Bavaria was tacitly understood, and, in order to reduce the country to obedience, three fresh armies again approached the frontiers, the Italian, Peyry, from the south through the valley of the Adige, and Baraguay d'Hilliers from the west through the Pusterthal; the former suffered a disastrous defeat above Trent, but was rescued from utter destruction by General Vial, who had followed to his rear, and who, as well as Baraguay, advanced as far as Brixen.[16] Drouet d'Erlon, with the main body of the Bavarians, came from the north across the Strub and the Loferpa.s.s, and gained forcible possession of the Engpa.s.s. Hofer had been persuaded by the priest, Donay, to relinquish the anterior pa.s.ses into the country and Innsbruck, and to take up a strong position on the fortified mountain of Isel. Speckbacher arrived too late to defend Innsbruck, and, enraged at the ill-laid plan of defence, threw a body of his men into the Zillerthal in order to prevent the Bavarians from falling upon Hofer's rear. He was again twice wounded at the storming of the Kemmberg, which had already been fortified by the Bavarians. On the 25th of October, the Bavarians entered Innsbruck and summoned Hofer to capitulate. During the night of the 30th, Baron Lichtenthurm appeared in the Tyrolese camp, announced the conclusion of peace, and delivered a letter from the Archduke John, in which the Tyrolese were commanded peaceably to disperse and no longer to offer their lives a useless sacrifice. There was no warrant for the future, not a memory of an earlier pledge. The commands of their beloved master were obeyed by the Tyrolese with feelings of bitter regret, and a complete dispersion took place. Speckbacher alone maintained his ground, and repulsed the enemy on the 2d and 3d of November, but, being told, in a letter, by Hofer, "I announce to you that Austria has made peace with France and has forgotten the Tyrol," he gave up all further opposition, and Mayer and Kemnater, who had gallantly made head against General Rusca at the Muhlbacher Klause, followed his example.

The tragedy drew to a close. Hofer returned to his native vale, where the people of Pa.s.seyr and Algund, resolved at all hazards not to submit to the depredations of the Italian brigands under Rusca, flocked around him and compelled him to place himself at their head for a last and desperate struggle. Above Meran, the French were thrown in such numbers from the _Franzosenbuhl_, which still retains its name, that "they fell like a shower of autumnal leaves into the city."

The horses belonging to a division of cavalry intended to surround the insurgent peasantry were all that returned; their riders had been shot to a man. Rusca lost five hundred dead and one thousand seven hundred prisoners. The Capuchin was also present, and generously saved the captive Major Doreille, whose men had formerly set fire to a village, from the hands of the infuriated peasantry. But a traitor guided the enemy to the rear of the brave band of patriots; Peter Thalguter fell, and Hofer took refuge amid the highest Alps.--Kolb, who was by some supposed to be an English agent, but who was simply an enthusiast, again summoned the peasantry around Brixen to arms. The peasantry still retained such a degree of courage, as to set up an enormous barn-door as a target for the French artillery, and at every shot up jumped a ludicrous figure. Resistance had, however, ceased to be general; the French pressed in ever-increasing numbers through the valleys, disarmed the people, the majority of whom, obedient to Hofer's first mandate, no longer attempted opposition, and took their leaders captive. Peter Mayer was shot at Botzen. His life was offered to him on condition of his denying all partic.i.p.ation in the patriotic struggles of his countrymen, but he disdained a lie and boldly faced death. Those among the peasantry most distinguished for gallantry were either shot or hanged. Baur, a Bavarian author, who had fought against the Tyrolese, and is consequently a trusty witness, remarks that all the Tyroleso patriots, without exception, evinced the greatest contempt of death. The struggle recommenced in the winter, but was merely confined to the Pusterthal. A French division under Broussier was cut off on the snowed-up roads and shot to a man by the peasantry.

Hofer at first took refuge with his wife and child in a narrow rocky hollow in the Kellerlager, afterward in the highest Alpine hut, near the Oetzthaler Firner in the wintry desert. Vainly was he implored to quit the country; his resolution to live or to die on his native soil was unchangeable. A peasant named Raffel, unfortunately descrying the smoke from the distant hut, discovered his place of concealment, and boasted in different places of his possession of the secret of his hiding-place. This came to the ears of Father Donay, a traitor in the pay of France;[17] Raffel was arrested, and, in the night of the 27th of January, 1810, guided one thousand six hundred French and Italian troops to the mountain, while two thousand French were quartered in the circ.u.mjacent country. Hofer yielded himself prisoner with calm dignity. The Italians abused him personally, tore out his beard, and dragged him pinioned, half naked and barefoot, in his night-dress, over ice and snow to the valley. He was then put into a carriage and carried into Italy to the fortress of Mantua. No one interceded in his behalf. Napoleon sent orders by the Paris telegraph to shoot him within four-and-twenty hours. He prepared cheerfully for death.[18] On being led past the other Tyrolese prisoners, they embraced his knees, weeping. He gave them his blessing. His executioners halted not far from the Porta Chiesa, where, placing himself opposite the twelve riflemen selected for the dreadful office, he refused either to allow himself to be blindfolded or to kneel. "I stand before my Creator," he exclaimed with a firm voice, "and standing will I restore to Him the spirit He gave!" He gave the signal to fire, but the men, it may be, too deeply moved by the scene, missed their aim. The first fire brought him on his knees, the second stretched him on the ground, and a corporal, advancing, terminated his misery by shooting him through the head, February 29, 1810.--At a later period, when Mantua again became Austrian, the Tyrolese bore his remains back to his native Alps. A handsome monument of white marble was erected to his memory in the church at Innsbruck; his family was enn.o.bled. Count Alexander of Wurtemberg has poetically described the restoration of his remains to the Tyrol, for which he so n.o.bly fought and died.

"How was the gallant hunter's breast With mingled feelings torn, As slowly winding 'mid the Alps, His hero's corpse was borne!

"The ancient Gletcher, glowing red, Though cold their wonted mien, Bright radiance shed o'er Hofer's head, Loud thundered the lavine!"

Haspinger, the brave Capuchin, escaped unhurt to Vienna, in which Joseph Speckbacher, the greatest hero of this war, also succeeded, after unheard-of suffering and peril.--The Bavarians in pursuit of him searched the mountains in troops, and vowed to "cut his skin into boot-straps, if they caught him." Speckbacher attempted to escape into Austria, but was unable to go beyond Dux, the roads being blocked up with snow. At Dux, the Bavarians came upon his trace, and attacking the house in which he had taken refuge, he escaped by leaping through the roof, but again wounded himself. During the ensuing twenty-seven days, he wandered about the snow-clad forests, exposed to the bitter cold and in danger of starvation. During four consecutive days he did not taste food. He at length found an asylum in a hut in a high and exposed situation at Bolderberg, where he by chance fell in with his wife and children, who had also taken refuge there. The watchful Bavarians pursued him even here, and he merely owed his escape to the presence of mind with which, taking a sledge upon his shoulders, he advanced toward them as if he had been the servant of the house. No longer safe in this retreat, he hid himself in a cave on the Gemshaken, whence he was, in the beginning of spring, carried by a snow-ravine a mile and a half into the valley. He contrived to disengage himself from the snow, but one of his legs had been dislocated and rendered it impossible for him to regain his cave.

Suffering unspeakable anguish, he crept to the nearest hut, where he found two men, who carried him to his own house at Rinn, whither his wife had returned. But Bavarians were quartered in the house, and his only place of refuge was the cow-shed, where Zoppel, his faithful servant, dug for him a hole beneath the bed of one of the cows, and daily brought him food. The danger of discovery was so great that his wife was not made acquainted with his arrival. He remained in this half-buried state for seven weeks, until rest had so far invigorated his frame as to enable him to escape across the high mountain pa.s.ses, now freed by the May sun from the snow. He accordingly rose from his grave and bade adieu to his sorrowing wife. He reached Vienna without encountering further mishap, but gained no thanks for his heroism. He was compelled to give up a small estate that he had purchased with the remains of his property, the purchase-money proving insufficient, and he must have been consigned to beggary, had not Hofer's son, who had received a fine estate from the emperor, engaged him as his steward.

[Footnote 1: Without any attempt being made on the part of the government to prepare the minds of the people by proper instruction, the children were taken away by force in order to be inoculated for the smallpox. The mothers, under an idea that their infants were being bewitched or poisoned, trembled with rage and fear, while the Bavarian authorities and their servants mocked their dismay.]

[Footnote 2: Hofer was, in 1790, as the deputy of the Pa.s.seyrthal, a member of the diet at Innsbruck which so zealously opposed the reforms attempted by Joseph II.; he had fought, as captain of a rifle corps, against the French in 1796, and, in 1805, when bidding farewell to the Archduke John on the enforced cession of the Tyrol by Austria to Bavaria, had received a significant shake of the hand with an expressed hope of seeing him again in better times. Hofer traded in wine, corn and horses, was well known and highly esteemed as far as the Italian frontier. He had a Herculean form and was remarkably good-looking. He wore a low-crowned, broad-brimmed black Tyrolean hat, ornamented with green ribbons and the feathers of the capercalzie. His broad chest was covered with a red waistcoat, across which green braces, a hand in breadth, were fastened to black chamois-leather knee-breeches. His knees were bare, but his well-developed calves were covered with red stockings. A broad black leathern girdle clasped his muscular form. Over all was thrown a short green coat without b.u.t.tons.

His long dark-brown beard, that fell in rich curls upon his chest, added dignity to his appearance. His full, broad countenance was expressive of good-humor and honesty. His small, penetrating eyes sparkled with vivacity.]

[Footnote 3: A youth of two-and-twenty, slight in person and extremely handsome, at that time a bridegroom, and inspired by the deepest hatred of the Bavarians, by whose officers he had been personally insulted.]

[Footnote 4: The daughter of a tailor, named Camper. As the b.a.l.l.s flew around her, she shouted, "On with ye! who cares for Bavarian dumplings!"]

[Footnote 5: The Austrian general, Marschall, who had been sent to guard the Southern Tyrol, was removed for declaring that he deemed it an insult for the military to make common cause with peasants and for complaining of his being compelled to sit down to table with Hofer.]

[Footnote 6: Proclamation of the emperor Francis to the Tyrolese: "Willingly do I antic.i.p.ate your wish to be regarded as the most faithful subjects of the Austrian empire. Never again shall the sad fate of being torn from my heart befall you."]

[Footnote 7: The Count von Stachelburg from Meran, who fought as a volunteer among the peasantry, fell at that time. He was the last of his race.]

[Footnote 8: He was joined here by his son Anderl, a child ten years of age, who collected the enemy's b.a.l.l.s in his hat, and so obstinately refused to quit the field of battle that his father was compelled to have him carried by force to a distant alp.]

[Footnote 9: He paid a visit, in disguise, to the commandant within the fortress, extinguished a grenade with his hat, crept undiscovered into the fortress and spoiled the fire-engines, cut loose the s.h.i.+ps moored beneath the walls, etc. Joseph Speckbacher of the Innthal was an open-hearted, fine-spirited fellow, endowed with a giant's strength, and the best marksman in the country. His clear bright eye could, at the distance of half a mile, distinguish the bells on the necks of the cattle. In his youth, he was addicted to poaching, and being, on one occasion, when in the act of roasting a chamois, surprised by four Bavarian Jager, he unhesitatingly dashed the melted fat of the animal into their faces, and, quick as lightning, dealt each of them a deathblow with the b.u.t.t-end of his rifle.]

[Footnote 10: He cited the following names immortal in the Tyrol: A.

Hofer, Straub of Hall, Reider of Botzen, Bombardi, postmaster of Salurn, Morandel of Kaltern, Resz of Fleims, Tscholl of Meran, Frischmann of Schlanders, Senn, sheriff of Nauders, Fischer, actuary of Landek, Strehle, burgomaster of Imbst, Plawen, governor of Reutti, Major Dietrich of Lermos, Aschenbacher, governor of the Achenthal, Sieberer of Cuffstein, Wintersteller of Kisbuchl, Kolb of Lienz, Count Sarntheim, Peer, counsellor to the court of appeal. Count Sarntheim was taken prisoner and carried into Bavaria, together with the heroic Baroness of Sternbach, who, mounted on horseback and armed with pistols, accompanied the patriot force and aided in the command. She was seized in her castle of Muhlan, imprisoned in a house of correction at Munich, and afterward carried to Strasburg, was deprived of the whole of her property, ignominiously treated, and threatened with death, but never lost courage.--_Beda, Water's Tyrol._ Wintersteller was a descendant of the brave host of the same name who, in 1703, adorned his house, which was afterward occupied by Wintersteller, with the trophies won from the Bavarians.]

[Footnote 11: When incessantly pursued and ready to drop with fatigue, they found a cask of wine, and a drummer, knocking off its head, stooped down to drink, when he was pierced with a bullet, and his blood mingled with the liquor, which was, nevertheless, greedily swallowed by the famis.h.i.+ng soldiery.--_Jacob's Campaign of the Gotha-Altenburgers._]

[Footnote 12: The Tyrolese aimed at the windows and shot every one who looked out. As soon as the houses were, by this means, filled with the dead and wounded, they stormed them and took the survivors prisoner.

Two hundred and thirty men of Weimar and Coburg, commanded by Major Germar, defended themselves to the last; the house in which they were being at length completely surrounded and set on fire by the Tyrolese, they surrendered. This spot was afterward known as the "_Sachsenklemme_." Seven hundred Saxon prisoners escaped from their guards and took refuge on the _Krimmer Tauern_, where they were recaptured by the armed women and girls.]

[Footnote 13: Bartholdy relates that Lefebvre, disguised as a common soldier, mingled with the cavalry in order to escape the b.a.l.l.s of the Tyrolese sharpshooters. A man of Pa.s.seyr is said to have captured a three-pounder and to have carried it on his shoulders across the mountain. The Tyrolese would even carry their wounded enemies carefully on their shoulders to their villages. A Count Mohr greatly distinguished himself among the people of Vintschgau. The spirit shown by an old man above eighty years of age, who, after shooting a number of the enemy from a rock on which he had posted himself, threw himself, exclaiming "Juhhe! in G.o.d's name!" down the precipice, with a Saxon soldier, by whom he had been seized, is worthy of record.]

[Footnote 14: Von Seebach, in his History of the Ducal Saxon Regiment, graphically describes the flight. During the night time, all the mountains around the beautiful valley of Innsbruck were lighted up with watch-fires. Lefebvre ordered his to be kept brightly burning while his troops silently withdrew.]

[Footnote 15: He did not set himself above his equals and followed his former simple mode of life. The emperor of Austria sent him a golden chain and three thousand ducats, the first money received by the Tyrol from Austria; but Hofer's pride was not raised by this mark of favor, and the naivete of his reply on this occasion has often been a subject of ridicule: "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." The honest fellow permitted no pillage, no disorderly conduct; he even guarded the public morals with such strictness as to publish the following orders against the half-naked mode, imported by the French, at that time followed by the women: "Many of my good fellow-soldiers and defenders of their country have complained that the women of all ranks cover their bosoms and arms too little, or with transparent dresses, and by these means raise sinful desires highly displeasing to G.o.d and to all piously-disposed persons. It is hoped that they will, by better behavior, preserve themselves from the punishment of G.o.d, and, in case of the contrary, must solely blame themselves should they find themselves disagreeably covered. Andre Hofer, chief in command in the Tyrol."]

[Footnote 16: During the pillage of the monastery of Seeben by the French, a nun, in order to escape from their hands, cast herself from the summit of the rock into the valley.]

[Footnote 17: Donay had devoted himself to the service of the church, but having committed a theft, had been refused ordination. Napoleon rewarded him for his treachery with ordination and the appointment of chaplain in the _Santa Casa_ at Loretto.]

[Footnote 18: Four hours before his execution he wrote to his brother-in-law, Pohler, "My beloved, the hostess, is to have ma.s.s read for my soul at St. Marin by the rosy-colored blood. She is to have prayers read in both parishes, and is to let the sub-landlord give my friends soup, meat, and half a bottle of wine each. The money I had with me I have distributed to the poor; as for the rest, settle my accounts with the people as justly as you can. All in the world adieu, until we all meet in heaven eternally to praise G.o.d. Death appears to me so easy that my eyes have not once been wet on that account.

Written at five o'clock in the morning, and at nine o'clock I set off with the aid of all the saints on my journey to G.o.d."]

CCLVIII. Napoleon's Supremacy

Napoleon had, during the great war in Austria, during the intermediate time between the battles of Aspern and Wagram, caused the person of the pope, Pius VII., to be seized, and had incorporated the state of the church with his Italian kingdom. The venerable pope, whose energies were called forth by misfortune, astonished Christendom by his bold opposition to the ruler over the destinies of Europe, before whom he had formerly bent in humble submission, and for whose coronation he had condescended to visit Paris in person. The reestablishment of Catholicism in France by Napoleon had rendered the pope deeply his debtor, but Napoleon's attempt to deprive him of all temporal power, and to render him, as the first bishop of his realm, subordinate to himself, called forth a st.u.r.dy opposition. Napoleon no sooner spoke the language of Charlemagne than the pope responded in the words of Gregory VII. and of Innocent IV.: "Time has produced no change in the authority of the pope; now as ever does the pope reign supreme over the emperors and kings of the earth." The diplomatic dispute was carried on for some time, owing to Napoleon's expectation of the final compliance of the pope.[1] But on his continued refusal to submit, the peril with which Napoleon's Italian possessions were threatened by the landing of a British force in Italy and by the war with Austria, induced him, first of all, to throw a garrison into Ancona, and afterward to take possession of Rome, and, as the pope still continued obstinate, finally to seize his person, to carry him off to France, and to annex the Roman territory to his great empire.

The anathema hurled by the pope upon Napoleon's head had at least the effect of creating a warmer interest in behalf of the pontiff in the hearts of the Catholic population and of increasing their secret antipathy toward his antagonist.

In 1810, Napoleon annexed Holland and East Friesland "as alluvial lands" to France. His brother Louis, who had vainly labored for the welfare of Holland, selected a foreign residence and scornfully refused to accept the pension settled upon him by Napoleon. The first act of the new sovereign of Holland was the imposition of an income tax of fifty per cent. Instruction in the French language was enforced in all the schools, and all public proclamations and doc.u.ments were drawn up in both Dutch and French.[2] Holland was formed into two departments, which were vexed by two prefects, the Conte de Celles and Baron Staffart, Belgian renegades and blind tools of the French despot, and was, moreover, hara.s.sed by the tyrannical and cruel espionage, under Duvillieres, Duterrage, and Marivaux, which, in 1812, occasioned several ineffectual attempts to throw off the yoke.[3] In 1811, Holland was also deprived of Batavia, her sole remaining colony, by the British.

Lower Saxony, as far as the Baltic, the princ.i.p.alities of Oldenburg, Salm, and Aremberg, the Hanse towns, Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, were, together with a portion of the kingdom of Westphalia, at the same time also incorporated by Napoleon with France, under pretext of putting a stop to the contraband trade carried on on those coasts, more particularly from the island of Heligoland. He openly aimed at converting the Germans, and they certainly discovered little disinclination to the metamorphosis, into French. He pursued the same policy toward the Italians, and, had he continued to reign, would have followed a similar system toward the Poles. The subjection of the whole of Italy, Germany, and Poland lay within his power, but, to the nations inhabiting those countries he must, notwithstanding their incorporation with his universal empire, have guaranteed the maintenance of their integrity, a point he had resolved at all hazards not to concede. He, consequently, preferred dividing these nations and allowing one-half to be governed by princes inimical to him, but whose power he despised. His sole dread was patriotism, the popular love of liberty. Had he placed himself, as was possible in 1809, on the imperial throne of Germany, the consequent unity of that empire must, even under foreign sway, have endangered the ruler: he preferred gradually to gallicize Germany as she had been formerly romanized by her ancient conquerors. His intention to sever the Rhenish provinces and Lower Saxony entirely from Germany was clear as day. They received French laws, French governors, no German book was allowed to cross their frontiers without previous permission from the police, and in each department but one newspaper, and that subject to the revision of the prefect, was allowed to be published.--In Hamburg, one Baumhauer was arrested for an anti-gallic expression and thrown into the subterranean dungeons of Magdeburg, where he pined to death. The same tyranny was exercised even on the German territory belonging to the Rhenish confederation. Becker, privy-councillor of the duke of Gotha, was transported beyond the seas for having published a pamphlet against France. Several authors were compelled to retire into Sweden and Russia; several booksellers were arrested, numerous books were confiscated. Not the most trifling publication was permitted within the Rhenish confederated states that even remotely opposed the interests of France. The whole of the princes of the Rhenish confederation were, consequently, under the _surveillance_ of French censors and of the literary spies of Germany in the pay of France.

Hormayr's Archives contain a pamphlet well worthy of perusal, in which an account is given of all the arrests and persecutions that took place on account of matters connected with the press.--Madame de Stael was exiled for having spoken favorably of the German character in her work "de l'Allemagne," and the work itself was suppressed; Napoleon, on giving these orders, merely said, "Ce livre n'est pas Francais,"

His treatment of Switzerland was equally unindulgent. The Valais, which, although not forming part of Switzerland, still retained a sort of nominal independence, was formally incorporated with France; the canton of Tessin was, as arbitrarily, occupied by French troops, an immense quant.i.ty of British goods was confiscated, the press was placed under the strictest censors.h.i.+p, the _Erzahler_ of Muller- Friedeberg, the only remaining Swiss newspaper of liberal tendency, was suppressed, while Zschokke unweariedly lauded Napoleon to the skies as the regenerator of the liberties of Switzerland and as the savior of the world. A humble entreaty of the Swiss for mercy was scornfully refused by Napoleon. Instead of listening to their complaints, he reproached their envoys, who were headed by Reinhard of Zurich, in the most violent terms, charged the Swiss with conspiracy, and said that a certain Sydler had ventured to speak against him in the federal diet, etc.; nor could his a.s.sumed anger be pacified save by the instant dissolution of the federal diet, by the extension of the levy of Swiss recruits for the service of France, and by the threat of a terrible punishment to all Swiss who ventured to enter the service of England and Spain. The Swiss merely bound their chains still closer without receiving the slightest alleviation to their sufferings. Reinhard wrote in 1811, the time of this ill-successful attempt on the part of the Swiss, "a petty nation possesses no means of procuring justice." Why then did the great German nation sever itself into so many petty tribes?

The marriage of Napoleon on the 2d of April, 1810, with Maria Louisa, the daughter of the emperor of Austria, surrounded his throne with additional splendor. This marriage had a double object; that of raising an heir to his broad empire, his first wife, Josephine Beauharnais, whom he divorced, having brought him no children, and that of legitimating his authority and of obliterating the stain of low birth by intermingling his blood with that of the ancient race of Habsburg. Strange as it must appear for the child of revolution to deny the very principles to which he owed his being and to embrace the aristocratic ideas of a bygone age, for the proud conqueror of all the sovereigns of Europe anxiously to solicit their recognition of him as their equal in birth, these apparent contradictions are easily explained by the fact that men of liberal ideas were the objects of Napoleon's greatest dread and hatred, and that he was consequently driven to favor the ancient aristocracy, as he had formerly favored the ancient church, and to use them as his tools. Young and rising nations, not the ancient families of Europe, threatened his power, and he therefore sought to confirm it by an alliance against the former with the ancient dynasties.[4] The nuptials were solemnized with extraordinary pomp at Paris. The conflagration of the Austrian amba.s.sador's, Prince von Schwarzenberg's, house during a splendid fete given by him to the newly-wedded pair, and which caused the death of several persons, among others, of the Princess Pauline Schwarzenberg, the amba.s.sador's sister-in-law, who rushed into the flaming building to her daughter's rescue, clouded the festivities with ominous gloom.

In the ensuing year, 1811, the youthful empress gave birth to a prince, Napoleon Francis, who was laid in a silver cradle, and provisionally ent.i.tled "King of Rome," in notification of his future destiny to succeed his father on the throne of the Roman empire.[5]

Austria offered a melancholy contrast to the magnificence of France.

Exhausted by her continual exertions for the maintenance of the war, the state could no longer meet its obligations, and, on the 15th of March, 1811, Count Wallis, the minister of finance, lowered the value of one thousand and sixty millions of bank paper to two hundred and twelve millions, and the interest upon the whole of the state debts to half the new paper issue. This fearful state bankruptcy was accompanied by the fall of innumerable private firms; trade was completely at a standstill, and the contributions demanded by Napoleon amounted to a sum almost impossible to realize. Prussia, especially, suffered from the drain upon her resources. The beautiful and high-souled queen, Louisa, destined not to see the day of vengeance and of victory, died, in 1810, of a broken heart.[6]

While Germany lay thus exhausted and bleeding in her chains, Napoleon and Alexander put the plans, agreed to between them at Erfurt, into execution. Napoleon threw himself with redoubled violence on luckless Spain, and the Russians invaded Sweden.

The Germans acted a prominent part in the b.l.o.o.d.y wars in the Peninsula. Four Swiss regiments, that had at an earlier period been in the Spanish service, and the German Legion, composed of Hanoverian refugees to England, upheld the Spanish cause, while all sorts of troops of the Rhenish confederation, those of Bavaria and Wurtemberg excepted, several Dutch and four Swiss regiments, fought for Napoleon.

The troops of the Rhenish confederation formed two corps. The fate of one of them has been described by Captain Rigel of Baden. The Baden regiment was, in 1808, sent to Biscay and united under Lefebvre with other contingents of the Rhenish confederation, for instance, with the Na.s.sauers under the gallant Von Schafer, the Dutch under General Cha.s.se, the Hessians, the Primates (Frankforters), and Poles. As early as October, they fought against the Spaniards at Zornoza, and at the pillage of Portugalete first became acquainted with the barbarous customs of this terrible civil war. The most implacable hatred, merciless rage, the a.s.sa.s.sination of prisoners, plunder, destruction, and incendiarism, equally distinguished both sides. The Germans garrisoned Bilboa, gained some successes at Molinar and Valmaseda, were afterward placed under the command of General Victor, who arrived with a fresh army, were again victorious at Espinosa and Burgos, formed a junction with Soult and finally with Napoleon, and, in December, 1808, entered Madrid in triumph.--In January, 1809, the German troops under Victor again advanced upon the Tagus, and, after a desperate conflict, took the celebrated bridge of Almaraz by storm.

This was followed by the horrid sacking of the little town of Arenas, during which a Na.s.sauer named Hornung, not only, like a second Scipio, generously released a beautiful girl who had fallen into his hands, but sword in hand defended her from his fellow-soldiers. In the following March, the Germans were again brought into action, at Mesa de Ibor, where Schafer's Na.s.sauers drove the enemy from their position, under a fearful fire, which cut down three hundred of their number; and at Medelin, where they were again victorious and ma.s.sacred numbers of the armed Spanish peasantry. Four hundred prisoners were, after the battle, shot by order of Marshal Victor. Among the wounded on the field of battle there lay, side by side, Preusser, the Na.s.sauer, and a Spanish corporal, both of whom had severely suffered.