LVIII. 1809. CHAP. long habituated to climbing mountains, his carriage was somewhat impaired by a habitual stoop. In education and the means of improvement he had been superior to those of most persons in his rank of life, from his frequent intercourse with travellers, as well as the traffic which he carried on in wine and horses, in the course of which he had visited most of the principal cities on the southern side of the mountains, and become a fluent master of the Italian language, though in the low Venetian dialect. His dress was the common habit of the country, with some trifling variation: a large black hat with a broad brim, black ribbons, and a dark curling feather, a green jacket, red waistcoat, green braces, black leathern girdle, short black breeches of the same material, and red or black stockings. About his neck was always to be seen a crucifix and a silver medal of St George, to which was afterwards added a gold medal and chain, sent him by the Emperor. He never, however, obtained any rank in the Austrian army, and was indebted for his influence among his countrymen to his well-known probity of character and disinterested disposition, as well as the secret connexion which he maintained with the Archduke John, with whom he had formed an acquaintance in the 1 Gesch. A. course of that prince's scientific rambles in the Tyrol. This acquaintance led to his being chosen as a deputy from his native valley to confer with him at Brunecken, in November 1805, and Vienna in January 1809.1 Hofer, 44, 52. Barth. 42, 45. His talents and acquirements were of a superior order, as was sufficiently evinced by his having been selected by that discerning prince on occasions of such impordisposition. tance for the discharge of difficult duties; but his parts 25. His cha racter and were solid rather than brilliant, and he evinced, in its It LVIII. 1809. attachment to the Catholic faith, and patriotic ardour, CHAP. were unbounded; and the bare recital of a victory gained by Austria in former times, or allusion to the classical days of the Tyrol, a word in favour of the sacred person of the Emperor or the Archduke John, were sufficient to fill his eyes with tears. Though slow and sometimes vacillating in decision, he was capable, when he applied to a subject, of just discrimination; and when invested, during a few months in autumn 1809, with the entire government of the province, his measures were judicious to a degree that could hardly have been expected from his limited means of information. Fond of conviviality, sometimes addicted to intemperance, he was often carousing with his friends when the troops were engaged in action; and, though repeatedly victorious, and fearless in danger, he was only once under a hot fire during the war, though then he acted with the utmost gallantry. But his energy in conduct, and well-known patriotic ardour, obtained for him the attachment of his country- 52, 53. men, whom he constantly led to victory; and the intre- Barth. 42, 47. Inglis, pidity of his demeanour in his last moments has secured ii. 165, 166. for him an enduring place in the hearts of his countrymen.1 Gesch. A. Hofer, 44, 26. Inferior to Hofer in general government, and unversed in the practice of political negotiation, SPECHBACHER was greatly his superior in the energy and conduct of actual of Spechwarfare. He was a substantial yeoman, having inherited bacher. from his father a farm of some value in the village of Gnadenwald, in the Lower Innthal. Born in the year 1768, he was left an orphan at the age of seven years; and though his relations bestowed all the care upon his education which circumstances would admit, he showed little disposition for study or any sedentary pursuit. From an early age he was found from morning till night among the mountains, with his rifle over his shoulder, pursuing the roe or engaging the lammergeyer. As he advanced in years, these pursuits had such attractions for him, that, abandoning altogether his paternal estate, he associated with a band of hunters, who set the forest-laws at defiance, and ranged the mountains of the Upper and Lower Innthal, the Oezthal, and the rugged forests of the Bavarian Tyrol. LVIII. 1809. CHAP. By this wandering mode of life, as he afterwards himself admitted, he became acquainted with every pass and glen on the frontiers of Tyrol and Bavaria, from Feldkirch to Kufstein-a species of knowledge which was of essential importance in the conduct of the partisan warfare with which he was afterwards entrusted. At the same time it nourished in his mind that inextinguishable hatred towards Bavaria, which is felt more or less by every inhabitant of the northern Tyrol. His grandfather had distinguished himself in the war against the Bavarians, under Maximilian Emmanuel; "and when I was a child," said Spechbacher in after days, "and listened to him as he told us the history of those times, I longed to have an opportunity of fighting against them as he had done." He was diverted, however, from this dangerous course of life, by the impression produced by seeing one of his companions shot in a rencontre with a band of chasseurs; and returning at the age of twentyeight to his native village, he married a young woman with some property, entered into a contract to supply the salt-works of Hall with wood, made himself master of the elements of education, and continued for twelve years to lead a laborious, inoffensive life, till the trumpet of war from Austria roused him to danger, and glory, and immortality.1 1 Barth. 36, 42. Inglis, ii. 179, 180. 27. the friar. JOSEPH HASPINGER was a Capuchin friar, and buried in the seclusion of a monastery till the war broke out. Of Joseph Though reckoned with justice one of the most formidable Haspinger, of the Tyrolese leaders, he carried with him into the field of battle only the spiritual weapons which he brought from the cloister. Clothed in his brown garment and rope girdle, he bore in his hand a large ebony crucifix, with which, it is said, in close combat, he sometimes exchanged blows with the enemy; and being endowed with prodigious strength, nearly as many wonders are recounted of his personal feats as miracles won by his faith and devotion. When a student in the faculty of theology, he had borne arms against the French, and won a silver medal, which he consecrated, on entering the order of St Francis, to the miraculous crucifix at Eppen near Bolsano.2 He was distinguished by a flowing beard of a red colour, which gave him the surname 2 Barth. i. 52, 54. Inglis, ii. 180, 181. of Rothbard: and often the massy crucifix and animated voice of the friar restored the combat, when his countrymen were sinking under numbers or fatigue. CHAP. 1809. 28. Baron Hor MARTIN TEIMER, though a brave and active leader, was not so celebrated as the other chiefs among the peasantry; but, from his military talents, skill in negotiation, and a of Martin certain degree of aristocratic favour which it induced, he Teimer, and received marks of distinction from the Emperor which mayer. the others never enjoyed, and was made a baron, with the cross of Maria Theresa, a dignity to which Hofer never attained. Teimer, however, was Hofer's superior in conduct and understanding, though, from not being so great a favourite with the people, he never possessed the same influence or celebrity. He was born on the 14th August 1778, at Schlanders, in the Vintschgau; and had a countenance in which the prominent forehead and sparkling eye clearly indicated the ascendant of talent. He served in the militia in the war of 1796, and raised himself by his abilities from the ranks to the station of major; having distinguished himself in several actions under Laudon in that year, and Bellegarde in 1799. In 1805, he was again made captain in the militia, and subsequently kept a shop at Klagenfurth. Like Hofer, his disposition was phlegmatic, and he was fond of conviviality; but, when roused by danger and placed at the head of his troops, he displayed equal courage and capacity, and contributed with the peasants of the Upper Innthal, whom he commanded, to some of the greatest successes of the war. It was only unfortunate that the favour of the Emperor occasioned a certain jealousy between him and Hofer, which in some degree dimmed the glory and impaired the usefulness of both. Baron Hormayer, one of the few native nobility who appeared in arms for their 1 Barth. i. country, was early appointed by the Austrian cabinet Inglis, ii. 181. governor of the province; and he showed his judgment Gesch. A. by delegating his authority at a very early period of 60. Hofer, by whom the movements of the peasants were practically directed till the close of the contest.1 Such were the simple leaders under whose guidance the Tyrolese engaged in the formidable contest with the united power of France and Bavaria. It was from no ignorance of the perils which awaited them, but a brave VOL. XII. Y 82, 84. Hofer, 59, CHAP. 1809. 29. Brave pre parations of the people for the contest. determination to disregard them, that they stood forth with such unanimous gallantry for their country's deliverance. In former wars, they had both witnessed and felt the weight of the French arms; in 1796, they had seen it roll past them in the Italian, in 1805, on the Bavarian plains; in 1797, their valleys had been penetrated from the south by Joubert,* in 1805, invaded from the north by Marshal Ney; and they were well aware that the probabilities were, that if a serious reverse happened to the Imperial arms, the forces of the empire would, as on former occasions, be concentrated for the defence of the capital, and they would be left without external aid to make head against their numerous and disciplined enemies. Still they unanimously stood forth in the contest. Every man took leave of his family and his friends as those who might never meet again. They prepared themselves, after the manner of their country, for what they deemed a pious warfare, by the most solemn rites of their religion. The priest, in many parishes, assembled those who were to join the army, and animated them by his exhortations, and blessed those who might die in defence of their country. Every family assembled together, and prayed that the youths who were to leave it, might support their good name in the hour of danger, and die rather than dishonour their native land. In many instances even the sacrament was administered as for the last time in life, and accompanied with the solemnities which the Romish Church enjoins for the welfare of a departing soul. It was with such holy rites, and by such exercises of family devotion, that these brave men prepared themselves for the fearful warfare on which they were entering; and it was the spirit which they thus inhaled that supported them when they were left to their own re1 Personal sources, and enabled them, even amidst all the depression Barth. 86, 90. arising from the desertion of their allies, to present an undaunted front to the hostility of combined Europe.1 Information. All things being in readiness, and the Austrian troops under the Archduke Charles having crossed the Inn, the signal of insurrection was given by the Archduke John, in a spirited proclamation, from his headquarters at Klagen*Ante, chap. 23, § 15. † Ibid, chap. 40, § 89. |