CHAP. 1809. April 12. 1 Gesch. A. Hofer, 92, 93. Inglis, ii. 169, 172. Barth. 104, 106. 35. Arrival, de feat, and surrender of Bisson's assembled a body of insurgents from the Lower Innthal, burst open the gates on the day following by means of an immense fir-tree, which was rolled up on wheels to the massy portal by fifty of his strongest peasants, and every man was made prisoner. The Tyrolese, after these successes, set no bounds to their rejoicings: the great Imperial eagle was taken down from the tomb of Maximilian in the High Church of Innspruck, decorated with red ribbons, and carried amid deafening acclamations through the street, the peasants flocking in crowds to gaze at and kiss it; while the pictures of the Archduke John and the Emperor were placed On a triumphal arch, surrounded by candles kept constantly burning. every one that passed stopping an instant, bending the knee, and exclaiming, "Long live the Emperor !"1 Soon, however, in the midst of these rejoicings, the Tyrolese were called to more serious duties. The victorious peasants, who had fallen asleep on the streets or in the orchards around the town, were alarmed at three o'clock on the morning of the 12th, by the intelligence that the enemy were approaching. They proved to be the division of Bisson, which, having forced its way through the pass of Lueg and over the Brenner, from Sterzing and the valley of the Eisach, had reached Mount Ysel and the neighbourhood of the Abbey of Wilten, on its way to the northern Tyrol and Bavaria. The gates were immediately barricaded with casks, waggons, carts, and every thing that could be found for that purpose, and the approaches to the city filled with armed men, ready to give the enemy a warm reception. But the Bavarians, who were descending the Brenner, were in still greater consternation than their opponents at the circumstances of their situation. With difficulty, and constantly harassed by a cloud of insurgents in their rear, they had reached the heights of Mount Ysel, overhanging the capital; and now they found Innspruck, their sole point of retreat, where they expected to obtain succour, rest, and security, occupied by twenty thousand peasants. General Kinkel, who perceived the hopelessness of their situation, wrote to General Bisson, urging him to send some confidential person into the town who might report the state of affairs; and, in pursuance of this advice, Wrede, with a large escort, soon made his appearance, and the whole were immediately taken into custody. Wrede was detained, the remainder being allowed to return to their comrades. The situation of the French and Bavarians was now almost desperate. Chastellar, with a body of armed peasants, as well as a few regular troops, was descending the Brenner, and already menaced their rear; while the rocks and thickets in their front and flanks were occupied by the insurgents of the Innthal, who in great strength obstructed their advance. After some unsuccessful parleying, in the course of which Bisson expressed the utmost dread of the vengeance of Napoleon if he laid down his arms, the struggle began, and a close discharge, admirably directed, thinned the ranks of the French grenadiers; while the shouts with which the mountains resounded on all sides were so tremendous that they were completely panic-struck, and compelled their commander to consent to an unconditional surrender. Bisson laid down his arms with all his troops, including the division at Schwatz, which was to be delivered up to the Austrians there. Nearly three thousand men, on this occasion, fell in all into the hands of the enemy,1* CHAP. LVIII. 1809. Gesch. A. Pelet, iii. 90. Hofer, 97, 99. Barth. 106, 108. The only post of importance in the Tyrol now occupied by the Bavarians, was Hall in the lower Innthal, and it 36. soon yielded to the enterprise and skill of Spechbacher. Capture of The women and children who remained on the left bank Hall by Spechbacher, of the Inn, lighted fires on all the hills bounding the valley on that side; and this stratagem induced the Bavarian garrison to believe, that if the town were attacked at all, it would be from the northern quarter. Thither, accordingly, they all crowded, carefully manning the ramparts and watching the approaches. Meanwhile, Spechbacher with his men silently advanced in ambush to the other side, and, when the drawbridge was let * Upon signing this capitulation Bisson exclaimed, "This day will be my last, the grave of my honour and military reputation. Never will Napoleon believe that this disaster might not have been averted; even were I merely unfortunate, he would impute it to me as a crime." In this, however, the French general was mistaken: it was for the interest of the Emperor to conceal this check, and the lustre of subsequent events enabled him to accomplish this object. Bisson was not disgraced; and, by a singular revolution of fortune, was the governor of Mantua when Hofer was shot in that fortress.-Gesch. A. HOFER, 97, 98. CHAP. 1809. down and the gate opened, apon the bell ringing for matins, they rushed in, overpowered the guard, and made themselves masters of the town. The Bavarian prisoners, about four hundred in number, were immediately marched off under an escort consisting chiefly of women. Considering this as a studied insult, the captives were exceedingly indignant; but, in truth, it was the result of 1 Barth. 116, necessity-the whole male population having been 120. Gesch. marched off towards Innspruck; and, from a similar A. Hofer, 101, 102. cause, a similar service was often assigned to the female sex during the war.1 Thus did the Tyrolese, in one week after the insurrection broke out, by means solely of their own valour and patriotism, aided by the natural strength of the country, entirely deliver the province from the enemy; recover all the fortresses, except Kufstein, which were in the hands of their oppressors; and destroy above ten thousand regular troops of the enemy, of whom six thousand were made prisoners! These extraordinary successes, too, were gained almost exclusively by the unaided efforts of the people; for though the Austrian regulars came up most opportunely in the first contest, at the bridge of San Lorenzo, yet they had no share in the subsequent triumphs, which were achieved long before their arrival at the scene of action, by the assembled peasantry : a memorable instance of what may be effected by unanimity and vigour, even in opposition to a formidable military force. The effect of these victories was to liberate the southern as well as northern Tyrol; for the French troops were so much discouraged by their reverses that they evacuated both Trent and Roveredo, and fell back to the neighbourhood of Verona. The insurrection gained all the Italian Tyrol; and it even spread into the valleys of the Oglio and the Mella, where the people were highly discontented with the government of the kingdom of Italy. Numerous bodies of partisans appeared to the north, in the Bavarian plains and the Swabian hills, and on the south, in the neighbourhood of Brescia and Verona: they communicated with the Archduke John, whose victory at Sacile excited extraordinary enthusiasm, by the vale of the Piave; and symptoms of revolt were already manifesting themselves CHAP. 1809. in all the southern valleys of the Alps, as far as Piedmont, where the people only waited for the Austrian standards to cross the Adige to break out into open insurrection. Nor was it the least honourable circumstance in this glorious contest, that though the population were strongly excited by a long course of previous injuries, and almost entirely destitute of regular officers to restrain their impe- 1 Pel. iii. 91, tuosity, they were as much distinguished by their huma- 95. Gesch. A. nity as their valour, and, with a few exceptions, originating 101, 102. in the heat of assault, conducted their hostilities with at least as much moderation as disciplined soldiers.1 Hofer, 100, 38. tellar in the Tyrol. Meanwhile Napoleon, who was exceedingly irritated at this unlooked-for series of disasters in the Tyrol, and, notwithstanding all his power, was not able altogether to Menaces of Napoleon conceal them even from his own subjects, let his exaspera- against Chastion exhale in furious invectives against the Marquis Chastellar, to whom he ascribed both the exciting of the revolt in the Tyrol, and the cruelties which he alleged May 5. had been committed by the peasantry. The latter charge, founded upon some isolated acts of revenge perpetrated in the assault of Innspruck, was wholly unfounded as against the Tyrolese in general; and against Chastellar, in particular, was in an especial manner false, as at the time when the acts complained of took place on the banks of the Inn, he was still at Brixen, sixty miles distant, to the south of the Brenner, and even ignorant of the whole operations to the north of that mountain. But the sentence of outlawry pronounced by Napoleon against Chastellar and Hormayer, both of whom were ordered to be delivered to a military commission as soon as taken, and shot within twenty-four hours, was of a piece with his invariable policy in such circumstances. Whenever a disaster had occurred to his arms, or an event had taken place likely to rouse an enthusiastic moral feeling against his government, he instantly propagated some falsehood against its authors, or exaggerated some trifling incident into a mighty enormity; and, by the vehement abuse of the persons by whom his power had thus been assailed, 2 Pel. iii. 95, often succeeded, at least with his own benighted subjects, 96. Gesch. A. in withdrawing public attention altogether from the cala- 106. mities sustained by himself, or the virtues displayed by others, which he sought to conceal.2 Hofer, 105, CHAP. 1809. 39. Actions in by the French. April 23. Chastellar, for a fortnight after the Tyrol was evacuated by the enemy, laboured assiduously to give something like military consistence to the tumultuary efforts of the peasantry. He succeeded in equipping a small body of the Southern cavalry, to whom he gave arms-a species of force of Tyrol, which is evacuated which these poor mountaineers stood much in need—and organised several battalions of excellent foot-soldiers. Having put matters in a train to the north of the mountains, he recrossed the Brenner with his regular troops, and, descending the valley of the Eisach and Adige, came up with the enemy in front of the famous defile of La Pietra, between Roveredo and Trent. The French, under Baraguay D'Hilliers, six thousand strong, were there posted in a well-known position of uncommon strength, and held firm, to give the main body of their army under Eugene time to retreat in order to the banks of the Adige, after the disastrous battle of Sacile. The Austrians, having imprudently commenced an attack when worn out with the fatigue of a long march, were worsted and driven out of the defile with loss; but the French, notwithstanding, continued their retreat to the neighbourhood of Verona, and Chastellar took up his quarters in Roveredo. From thence, however, he was soon recalled to the north of the Brenner, by the threatened invasion of the province 121, 128, 136. by the French troops after the disastrous battles in Bavaria.1 April 24. 171. Barth. Gesch. A. Hofer, 114, 40. Actions on frontier. April 29. Jellachich, as already noticed,* after the defeat of Hiller at Landshut, had retired from Munich towards Salzburg on the 24th April. Thither he was followed by Marshal the Salzburg Lefebvre with his corps, consisting chiefly of Bavarians. The Austrian general took up a strong position in front of Salzburg, where he endeavoured to arrest the advance of the French troops; but the numbers of the French were so superior that he was unable to effect his object, and was driven into the town with the loss of several hundred prisoners and three guns. The victors entered pell-mell with the vanquished; and Jellachich, continuing his retreat in great disorder to the south, ascended the valley of the Salza, and crossing the mountains behind Rastadt, made the best of his way towards Villach and Carinthia, abandoning the eastern districts of the Tyrol to their fate. *Ante, Chap. lvii. § 30. |