Germany from the Earliest Period Part 8

This n.o.ble-spirited German was the founder of a secret society, the _Tugendbund_, by which a general insurrection against Napoleon was silently prepared throughout Germany. Among its members were numerous statesmen, officers, and literati. Among the latter, Arndt gained great note by his popular style, Jahn by his influence over the rising generation. Jahn reintroduced gymnastics, so long neglected, into education, as a means of heightening moral courage by the increase of physical strength.[2] Scharnhorst, meanwhile, although restricted to the prescribed number of troops, created a new army by continually exchanging trained soldiers for raw recruits, and secretly purchased an immense quant.i.ty of arms, so that a considerable force could, in case of necessity, be speedily a.s.sembled. He also had all the bra.s.s battery guns secretly converted into field-pieces and replaced by iron guns. Napoleon's spies, however, came upon the trace of the _Tugendbund_. Stein, exposed by an intercepted letter, was outlawed[3]

by Napoleon and compelled to quit Prussia. He was succeeded by Hardenberg, by whom the treaty of Basel had formerly been concluded and whose nomination was publicly approved of by Napoleon. Scharnhorst and Julius Gruner, the head of the Berlin police, were also deprived of their offices. The Berlin university, nevertheless, continued to give evidence of a better spirit. Enlightenment and learning, on their decrease at Frankfort on the Oder, here found their headquarters.

Halle had become Westphalian, and the universities of Rinteln and Helmstadt had, from a similar cause, been closed.

Austria also felt her humiliation too deeply not to be inspired, like Prussia, with an instinct of self-preservation. The imperial dignity and catholicism were here closely a.s.sociated with the memory of the Middle Ages, whose magnificence and grandeur were once more disclosed to the people in the masterly productions of the writers of the day.

Hence the unison created by Frederick Schlegel between the romantic poets and antiquarians of Germany and Viennese policy. The predilection for ancient German art and poetry had, in the literary world, been merely produced by the reaction of German intelligence against foreign imitation; this literary reaction, however, happened coincidently with and aided that in the political world. The Nibelungen, the Minnesingers, the ancient chronicles, became a popular study. The same enthusiasm inspired the liberal-spirited poets, Tieck, Arnim, and Brentano; Fouque charmed the rising generation and the mult.i.tude with his extravagant descriptions of the age of chivalry; the learned researches of Grimm, Hagen, Busching, Grater, etc., into German antiquity, at that time, excited general interest, but the glowing colors in which Joseph Gorres, himself a former Jacobin, and amid the half Gallicized inhabitants of Coblentz, revived, as if by magic, the Middle Age on the ruin-strewed banks of the Rhine caused the deepest delight. Two men, Stein, now a refugee in Austria, and Count Munster, first of all Hanoverian minister and afterward English amba.s.sador at Petersburg, who kept up a constant correspondence with Stein and conducted the secret negotiations in the name of Great Britain, were unwearied in their endeavors to forge arms against Napoleon. In Austria, Count John Philip von Stadion, who had, since the December of 1805, been placed at the head of the ministry, had both the power and the will to repair the blunders committed by Thugut and Cobenzl.

The Russo-gallic alliance was viewed with terror by Austria. Europe had, to a certain degree, been part.i.tioned at Erfurt, by Napoleon and Alexander. Fresh sacrifices were evidently on the eve of being extorted from Germany. Russia had resolved at any price to gain possession of either the whole or a part of Turkey, and offered to confirm Napoleon in that of Bohemia, on condition of being permitted to seize Moldavia and Wallachia.[4] The danger was urgent. Austria, sold by Russia to France, could alone defend herself against both her opponents by an immense exertion of the national power of Germany. The old and faulty system had been fearfully revenged. The disunion of the German princes, the despotism of the aristocratic administrations, the estrangement of the people from all public affairs, had all conduced to the present degradation of Germany. Necessity now induced an alteration in the system of government and an appeal to the German people, whose voice had hitherto been vainly raised. The example set by Spain was to be followed. Stein, who was at that time at Vienna, kindled the glowing embers to a flame. The military reforms begun at an earlier period by the Archduke Charles were carried out on a wider basis. A completely new inst.i.tution, that of the _Landwehr_ or armed citizens, in contradistinction with the mercenary soldiery, was set on foot. Enthusiasm and patriotism were not wanting. The circ.u.mstance of the pope's imprisonment in Rome by Napoleon sufficed to rouse the Catholics. Everything was hoped for from a general rising throughout Germany against the French. Precipitation, however, ruined all.

Prussia was still too much weakened, her fortresses were still in the hands of the French, and Austria inspired but little confidence, while the Rhenish confederation solely aimed at aggrandizing itself by fresh wars at the expense of that empire, and, notwithstanding the inclination to revolt evinced by the people in different parts of Germany, more particularly in Westphalia, the terror inspired by Napoleon kept them, as though spellbound, beneath their galling yoke.

While Napoleon was engaged in the Peninsula, Austria levied almost the whole of her able-bodied men and equipped an army, four hundred thousand strong, at the head of which no longer foreign generals, but the princes of the house of Habsburg, were placed. The Archduke Charles[5] set off, in 1809, for the Rhine, John for Italy, Ferdinand for Poland. The first proclamation, signed by Prince Rosenberg and addressed to the Bavarians, was as follows: "You are now beginning to perceive that we are Germans like yourselves, that the general interest of Germany touches you more nearly than that of a nation of robbers, and that the German nation can alone be restored to its former glory by acting in unison. Become once more what you once were, brave Germans! Or have you, Bavarian peasants and citizens, gained aught by your prince being made into a king? by the extension of his authority over a few additional square miles? Have your taxes been thereby decreased? Do you enjoy greater security in your persons and property?" The proclamation of the Archduke Charles "to the German nation," declared: "We have taken up arms to restore independence and national honor to Germany. Our cause is the cause of Germany. Show yourselves deserving of our esteem! The German, forgetful of what is due to himself and to his country, is our only foe." An anonymous but well-known proclamation also declared: "Austria beheld--a sight that drew tears of blood from the heart of every true-born German--you, O nations of Germany! so deeply debased as to be compelled to submit to the legislation of the foreigner and to allow your sons, the youth of Germany, to be led to war against their still unsubdued brethren. The shameful subjection of millions of once free-born Germans will ere long be completed. Austria exhorts you to raise your humbled necks, to burst your slavish chains!" And in another address was said: "How long shall Hermann mourn over his degenerate children? Was it for this that the Cherusci fought in the Teutoburg forest? Is every spark of German courage extinct? Does the sound of your clanking chains strike like music on your ears? Germans, awake! shake off your death-like slumber in the arms of infamy! Germans! shall your name become the derision of after ages?"

The Austrian army, instead of vigorously attacking and disarming Bavaria, but slowly advanced, and permitted the Bavarians to withdraw unhara.s.sed for the purpose of forming a junction with the other troops of the Rhenish confederation under Napoleon, who had hastened from Spain on the first news of the movements of Austria. The hopes of the German patriots could not have been more fearfully disappointed or the German name more deeply humiliated than by the scorn with which Napoleon, on this occasion, placed himself at the head of the nations of western Germany, by whose arms alone, for he had but a handful of French with him, he overcame their eastern brethren at a moment in which the German name and German honor were more loudly invoked. "I have not come among you," said Napoleon smilingly to the Bavarians, Wurtembergers, etc., by whom he was surrounded, "I am not come among you as the emperor of France, but as the protector of your country and of the German confederation. No Frenchman is among you; _you alone_ shall beat the Austrians."[6] The extent of the blindness of the Rhenish confederation[7] is visible in their proclamations. The king of Saxony even called Heaven to his aid, and said to his soldiers, "Draw your swords against Austria with full trust in the aid of Divine providence!"[8]

In the April of 1809, Napoleon led the Rhenish confederated troops, among which the Bavarians under General Wrede chiefly distinguished themselves, against the Austrians, who had but slowly advanced, and defeated them in five battles, on five successive days, the most glorious triumph of his surpa.s.sing tactics, at Pfaffenhofen, Thann, Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmuhl, and Ratisbon. The Archduke Charles retired into Bohemia in order to collect reinforcements, but General Hiller was, on account of the delay in repairing the fortifications of Linz, unable to maintain that place, the possession of which was important on account of its forming a connecting point between Bohemia and the Austrian Oberland. Hiller, however, at least saved his honor by pushing forward to the Traun, and, in a fearfully b.l.o.o.d.y encounter at Ebelsberg, capturing three French eagles, one of his colors alone falling into the enemy's hands. He was, nevertheless, compelled to retire before the superior forces of the French, and Napoleon entered Vienna unopposed. A few b.a.l.l.s from the walls of the inner city were directed against the faubourg in his possession, but he no sooner began to bombard the palace than the inner city yielded. The Archduke Charles arrived, when too late, from Bohemia. Both armies, separated by the Danube, stood opposed to one another in the vicinity of the imperial city. Napoleon, in order to bring the enemy to a decisive engagement, crossed the river close to the great island of Lobau. He was received on the opposite bank near Aspern and Esslingen by the Archduke Charles, and, after a dreadful battle, that was carried on with unwearied animosity for two days, the 21st and 22d of May, 1809, was for the first time completely beaten[9] and compelled to fly for refuge to the island of Lobau. The rising stream had, meanwhile, carried away the bridge, Napoleon's sole chance of escape to the opposite bank. For two days he remained on the island with his defeated troops, without provisions, and in hourly expectation of being cut to pieces; the Austrians, however, neglected to turn the opportunity to advantage and allowed the French leisure to rebuild the bridge, a work of extreme difficulty. During six weeks afterward the two armies continued to occupy their former positions under the walls of Vienna on the right and left banks of the Danube, narrowly watching each other's movements and preparing for a final struggle.

The Archduke John had successfully penetrated into Italy, where he had defeated the viceroy, Eugene, at Salice and Fontana fredda. Favored by the simultaneous revolt of the Tyrolese, his success appeared certain, when the news of his brother's disaster compelled him to retreat. He withdrew into Hungary,[10] whither he was pursued by Eugene, by whom he was, on the 14th of June, defeated at Raab. The Archduke Ferdinand, who had advanced as far as Warsaw, had been driven back by the Poles under Poniatowski and by a Russian force sent by the emperor Alexander to their aid, which, on this success, invaded Galicia. Napoleon rewarded the Poles for their aid by allowing Russia to seize Wallachia and Moldavia.

The fate of Austria now depended on the issue of the struggle about to take place on the Danube. The archduke's troops were still elated with recent victory, but Napoleon had been strongly reinforced and again began the attack at Wagram, not far from the battleground of Aspern.

The contest lasted two days, the 5th and 6th of July. The Austrians fought with great personal gallantry, lost one of their colors, but captured twelve golden eagles and standards of the enemy; but the reserve body, intended to protect their left wing, failing to make its appearance on the field, they were outflanked by Napoleon and driven back upon Moravia. Every means of conveyance in Vienna was put into requisition for the transport of the forty-five thousand men, wounded on this occasion, to the hospitals, and this heartrending scene indubitably contributed to strengthen the general desire for peace. An armistice was, on the 12th of July, concluded at Znaym, and, after long negotiation, was followed, on the 10th of October, by the treaty of Vienna. Austria was compelled to cede Carniola, Trieste, Croatia and Dalmatia to Napoleon, Salzburg, Berchtoldsgaden, the Innviertel, and the Hausruckviertel to Bavaria, a part of Galicia to Warsaw and another part to Russia. Count Stadion lost office and was succeeded by Clement, Count von Metternich.--Frederick Stabs, the son of a preacher of Nuamburg on the Saal, formed a resolution to poniard Napoleon at Schonbrunn, the imperial palace in the neighborhood of Vienna. Rapp's suspicions became roused, and the young man was arrested before his purpose could be effected. He candidly avowed his intention. "And if I grant you your life?" asked Napoleon. "I would merely make use of the gift to rob you, on the first opportunity, of yours," was the undaunted reply. Four-and-twenty hours afterward the young man was shot.[11] The ancient German race of Gotscheer in Carniola and the people of Istria rose in open insurrection against the French and were only put down by force.

Although Prussia had left Austria unsuccored during this war, many of her subjects were animated with a desire to aid their Austrian brethren. Schill, unable to restrain his impetuosity, quitted Berlin on the 28th of April, for that purpose, with his regiment of hussars.

His conduct, although condemned by a sentence of the court-martial, was universally applauded. Dornberg, an officer of Jerome's guard, revolted simultaneously in Hesse, but was betrayed by a false friend at the moment in which Jerome's person was to have been seized, and was compelled to fly for his life. Schill merely advanced as far as Wittenberg and Halberstadt, was again driven northward to Wismar, and finally to Stralsund, by the superior forces of Westphalia and Holland. In a b.l.o.o.d.y street-fight at Stralsund he split General Carteret's, the Dutch general's head, and was himself killed by a cannon-ball. Thus fell this young hero, true to his motto, "Better a terrible end than endless terror." The Dutch cut off his head, preserved it in spirits of wine, and placed it publicly in the Leyden library, where it remained until 1837, when it was buried at Brunswick in the grave of his faithful followers. Five hundred of his men, under Lieutenant Brunow, escaped by forcing their way through the enemy. Of the prisoners taken on this occasion, eleven officers were, by Napoleon's command, shot at Wesel, fourteen subalterns and soldiers at Brunswick, the rest, about six hundred in number, were sent in chains to Toulon and condemned to the galleys.[12] Dornberg fled to England.

Katt, another patriot, a.s.sembled a number of veterans at Stendal and advanced as far as Magdeburg, but was compelled to flee to the Brunswickers in Bohemia. What might not have been the result had the plan of the Archduke Charles to march rapidly through Franconia been followed on the opening of the campaign?

William, duke of Brunswick, the son of the hapless Duke Ferdinand, had quitted Oels, his sole possession, for Bohemia, where he had collected a force two thousand strong, known as the black Brunswickers on account of the color of their uniform and the death's head on their helmets, with which he resolved to avenge his father's death.

Victorious in petty engagements over the Saxons at Zittau and over the French under Junot at Berneck, he refused to recognize the armistice between Austria and France, and, fighting his way through the enemy, surprised Leipzig by night and there provided himself with ammunition and stores. He was awaited at Halberstadt by the Westphalians under Wellingerode, whom, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, he completely defeated during the night of the 30th of July. Two days later he was attacked in Brunswick, in his father's home, by an enemy three times his superior, by the Westphalians under Rewbel, who advanced from Celle while the Saxons and Dutch pursued him from Erfurt. Aided by his brave citizens, many of whom followed his fortunes, he was again victorious and was enabled by a speedy retreat, in which he broke down all the bridges to his rear, to escape to Elsfleth, whence he sailed to England.

In August, an English army, forty thousand strong, landed on the island of Walcheren and attempted to create a diversion in Holland, but its ranks were speedily thinned by disease, it did not venture up the country and finally returned to England. The English, nevertheless, displayed henceforward immense activity in the Peninsula, where, aided by the brave and high-spirited population,[13]

they did great detriment to the French. In the English army in the Peninsula were several thousand Germans, princ.i.p.ally Hanoverian refugees. There were also numerous deserters from the Rhenish confederated troops, sent by Napoleon into Spain.

During the war in June, the king of Wurtemberg took possession of Mergentheim, the chief seat of the Teutonic order, which had, up to the present period, remained unsecularized. The surprised inhabitants received the new Protestant authorities with demonstrations of rage and revolted. They were the last and the only ones among all the secularized or mediatized estates of the Empire that boldly attempted opposition. They were naturally overpowered without much difficulty and were cruelly punished. About thirty of them were shot by the soldiery; six were executed; several wealthy burgesses and peasants were condemned as criminals to work in chains in the new royal gardens at Stuttgard. Thus miserably terminated the celebrated Teutonic order.

[Footnote 1: The whole of the revenues of Prussia were confiscated by the French until 1808. The contribution of one hundred and forty millions was, nevertheless, to be paid, and the French garrisons in the Prussian fortresses of Glogau, Kustrin, and Stettin were to be maintained at the expense of Prussia. The suppression of the monasteries in Silesia was far from lucrative, the commissioners, who were irresponsible, carrying on a system of pillage, and landed property having greatly fallen in value. The most extraordinary imposts of every description were resorted to for the purpose of raising a revenue, among other means, a third of all the gold and silver in the country was called in. A coinage, still more debased, was issued, and one more inferior still was smuggled into the country by English coiners. In 1808, silver money fell two-thirds of its current value and was even refused acceptance at that price.--The French, moreover, lorded over the country with redoubled insolence, broke every treaty, increased their garrisons, and occasionally laid the most inopportune commands, in the form of a request, upon the king; as, for instance, to lay under embargo and deliver up to them a number of English merchantmen that had been driven into the Prussian harbors by a dreadful storm. Blucher, at that time governor of Pomerania, restrained his fiery nature and patiently endured their insolence, while silently brooding over deep and implacable revenge.]

[Footnote 2: When marching with his pupils out of Berlin, he would ask the fresh ones as he pa.s.sed beneath the Bradenburg gate, "What are you thinking of now?" If the boy did not know what to answer, he would give him a box on the ear, saying as he did so, "You should think of this, how you can bring back the four fine statues of horses that once stood over this gate and were carried by the French to Paris."]

[Footnote 3: Decree of 16th December, 1808: "A certain Stein, who is attempting to create disturbances, is herewith declared the enemy of France; his property shall be placed under sequestration, and his person shall be secured." The Allgemeine Zeitung warns, at the same time, in its 330th number, all German savants not to give way to patriotic enthusiasm and to follow in John Muller's footsteps.]

[Footnote 4: Bignon's History of France.]

[Footnote 5: He undertook the chief command with extreme unwillingness and had long advised against the war, the time not having yet arrived, Prussia being still adverse, Germany not as yet restored to her senses, and experience having already proved to him how little he could act as his judgment directed. How often had he not been made use of and then suddenly neglected, been restrained, in the midst of his operations, by secret orders, been permitted to conduct the first or only the second part of a campaign, been placed in a subaltern position when the chief command was rightfully his, or been forced to accept of it when all was irremediably lost. Even on this occasion the first measure advised by him, that of pushing rapidly through Bohemia and Franconia, met with opposition. On the Maine and on the Weser alone was there a hope of inspiring the people with enthusiasm, not in Bavaria, where the hatred of the Austrians was irradicably rooted. It, nevertheless, pleased the military advisers of the emperor at Vienna to order the army to advance slowly through Bavaria.]

[Footnote 6: "None of my soldiers accompany me. You will know how to value this mark of confidence."--_Napoleon's Address to the Bavarians.

Bolderndorf's Bavarian Campaigns_. "I am alone among you and have not a Frenchman around my person. This is an unparalleled honor paid by me to you."--_Napoleon's Address to the Wurtemberg troops_. Arndt wrote at that time:

"By idle words and dastard wiles Hath he the mastery gained; He holds our sacred fatherland In slavery enchained.

Fear hath rendered truth discreet, And Honor croucheth at his feet.

Is this his work? ah no! 'tis _thine!_ This _thou_ alone hast done.

For him thy banner waved, for him Thy sword the battle won

By thy disputes he gaineth strength, By thy disgrace full honor, And 'neath the German hero's arm His weakness doth he cover: Glittering erewhile in borrowed show, The Gallic c.o.c.k doth proudly crow."]

[Footnote 7: The states of Wurtemberg imparted, among other things, the following piece of information to the house of Habsburg: "That the heads of a democratical government should spread principles destructive to order among its neighbors was easily explicable, but that Austria should take advantage of the war to derange the internal mechanism of neighboring states was inexcusable."--_Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 113_. The Bavarian proclamation (_Allgemeine Zeitung, No.

135_) says, "Princes of the blood royal unblushingly subscribed to proclamations placing them on an equality with the men of the Revolution of 1793." The _Moniteur_, Napoleon's Parisian organ, said in August, 1809, after the conclusion of the war, "The mighty hand of Napoleon has s.n.a.t.c.hed Germany from the revolutionary abyss about to engulf her."]

[Footnote 8: Posselt's Political Annals at that time contained an essay, in which the attempt made by the Austrian cabinet to call the Germans to arms was designated as a "crime" against the sovereigns "among whom Germany was at that period part.i.tioned, and in whose hearing it was both foolish and dangerous to speak of Germany."

Derision has seldom been carried to such a pitch.]

[Footnote 9: The finest feat of arms was that performed by the Austrian infantry, who repulsed twelve French regiments of cuira.s.siers. This picked body of cavalry was mounted on the best and strongest horses of Holstein and Mecklenburg (for Napoleon overcame Germany princ.i.p.ally by means of Germany), and bore an extremely imposing appearance. The Austrian infantry coolly stood their charge and allowed them to come close upon them before firing a shot, when, taking deliberate aim at the horses, they and their riders were rolled in confused heaps on the ground. Three thousand cuira.s.ses were picked up by the victors after the battle.]

[Footnote 10: Napoleon proclaimed independence to the Hungarians, but was unable to gain a single adherent among them.]

[Footnote 11: Aretin about this time published a "Representation of the Patriots of Austria to Napoleon the Great," in which that great sovereign was entreated to bestow a new government upon Austria and to make that country, like the new kingdom of Westphalia, a member of his family of states. A fitting pendant to John Muller's state speech, and so much the more uncalled-for as it was exactly the Austrians who, during this disastrous period, had, less than any of the other races of Germany, lost their national pride.]

[Footnote 12: They were afterward condemned to hard labor in the Hieres Isles, nor was it until 1814 that the survivors, one hundred and twenty in number, were restored to their homes.--_Allgemeine Zeitung, 1814. Appendix 91._]

[Footnote 13: Vide Napier's Peninsular War for an account of the military achievements of the Spaniards.--_Trans._]

CCLVII. Revolt of the Tyrolese

The Alps of the Tyrol had for centuries been the asylum of liberty.

The ancient German communal system had there continued to exist even in feudal times. Exactly at the time when the house of Habsburg lost its most valuable possessions in Switzerland, at the time of the council of Constance, Duke Frederick, surnamed Friedel with the empty purse, was compelled by necessity and for the sake of retaining the affection of the Tyrolese, to confirm them by oath in the possession of great privileges, which his successors, owing to a wholesome dread of exciting the anger of the st.u.r.dy mountaineers, prudently refrained from violating. The Tyrol was externally independent and was governed by her own diet. No recruits were levied in that country by the emperor, excepting those for the rifle corps, which elected its own commanders and wore the Tyrolean garb. The imposts were few and trifling in amount, the administration was simple. The free-born peasant enjoyed his rights in common with the patriarchal n.o.bility and clergy, who dwelt in harmony with the people; in several of the valleys the public affairs were administered by simple peasants; each commune had its peculiar laws and customs.

The first invasion of the Tyrol, in 1703, by the Bavarians, was successfully resisted. The Bavarians were driven, with great loss on their side, out of the country. A somewhat similar spirit animated the Tyrolese in 1805, and their anger was solely appeased by the express remonstrances of the Archduke John, whom the inhabitants of the Austrian Tyrol treated with the veneration due to a father. They now fell under the dominion of Bavaria, whose benevolent sovereign, Maximilian Joseph, promised, under the act dated the 14th of January, 1806, "not only strongly to uphold the const.i.tution of the country and the well-earned rights and privileges of the people, but also to promote their welfare": but, led astray by his, certainly n.o.ble, enthusiasm for the rescue of his Bavarian subjects from Jesuit obscurantism, he imagined that similar measures might also be advantageously taken in the Tyrol, where the mountaineers, true to their ancient simplicity, were revolted by the severity of the cure, attempted too by a physician of whose intentions they were mistrustful. Bavaria was overrun with rich monasteries; the Tyrol, less fertile, possessed merely a patriarchal clergy, less numerous, more moral and active. There was no motive for interference. The conscription that, by converting the idle youth of Bavaria into disciplined soldiery, was a blessing to the martial-spirited and improvident population, was impracticable amid the well-trained Tyrolese, and, although the control exercised by a well-regulated bureaucracy might be beneficial when viewed in contradistinction with the ancient complicated system of government and administration of justice during the existence of the division into petty states and the manifold contradictory privileges, it was utterly uncalled for in the simple administration of the Tyrol. For what purpose were mere presumptive ameliorations to be imposed upon a people thoroughly contented with the laws and customs bequeathed by their ancestors? The attempt was nevertheless made, and ancient Bavarian official insolence leagued with French frivolity of the school of Montgelas to vex the Tyrolese and to violate their most sacred privileges. The numerous chapels erected for devotional purposes were thrown down amid marks of ridicule and scorn; the ignorance and superst.i.tion of the old church was at one blow to yield to modern enlightenment.[1] The people shudderingly beheld the crucifixes and images of saints, so long the objects of their deepest veneration, sold to Jews. Notwithstanding the late a.s.surances of the Bavarian king, the Tyrolean diet was, moreover, not only dissolved, but the country was deprived of its ancient name and designated "Southern Bavaria," and the castle of the Tyrol, that had defied the storms of ages, and whose possessor, according to a sacred popular legend, had alone a right to claim the homage of the country, was sold by auction. The national pride of the Tyrolese was deeply and bitterly wounded, their ancient rights and customs were arbitrarily infringed, and, instead of the great benefits so recently promised, eight new taxes were levied, and the tax-gatherers not infrequently rendered themselves still more obnoxious by their brutality. Colonel Dittfurt, who, during the winter of 1809, acted with extreme inhumanity in the Fleimserthal, where the conscription had excited great opposition, and who publicly boasted that with his regiment alone he would keep the whole of the beggarly mountaineers in subjection, drew upon himself the greatest share of the popular animosity.

Austria, when preparing for war in 1809, could therefore confidently reckon upon a general rising in the Tyrol. Andrew Hofer, the host of the Sand at Pa.s.seyr (the Sandwirth), went to Vienna, where the revolt was concerted.[2] A conspiracy was entered into by the whole of the Tyrolese peasantry. Sixty thousand men, on a moderate calculation, were intrusted with the secret, which was sacredly kept, not a single townsman being allowed to partic.i.p.ate in it. Kinkel, the Bavarian general, who was stationed at Innsbruck and narrowly watched the Tyrol, remained perfectly unconscious of the mine beneath his feet.

Colonel Wrede, his inferior in command, had been directed to blow up the important bridges in the Pusterthal at St. Lorenzo, in order to check the advance of the Austrians, in case of an invasion. Several thousand French were expected to pa.s.s through the Tyrol on their route from Italy to join the army under Napoleon. No suspicion of the approach of a popular outbreak existed. On the 9th of April, the signal was suddenly given; planks bearing little red flags floated down the Inn; on the 10th, the storm burst. Several of the Bavarian sappers sent at daybreak to blow up the bridges of St. Lorenzo being killed by the bullets of an invisible foe, the rest took to flight.

Wrede, enraged at the incident, hastened to the spot at the head of two battalions, supported by a body of cavalry and some field-pieces.

The whole of the Pusterthal had, however, already risen at the summons of Peter Kemnater, the host of Schabs,[3] in defence of the bridges.

Wrede's artillery was captured by the enraged peasantry and cast, together with the artillerymen, into the river. Wrede, after suffering a terrible loss, owing to the skill of the Tyrolean riflemen, who never missed their aim, was completely put to rout, and, although he fell in with a body of three thousand French under Brisson on their route from Italy, resolved, instead of returning to the Pusterthal, to withdraw with the French to Innsbruck. The pa.s.sage through the valley of the Eisack had, however, been already closed against them by the host of Lechner, and the fine old Roman bridge at Laditsch been blown up. In the pa.s.s of the Brixen, where the valley closes, the French and Bavarians suffered immense loss; rocks and trees were rolled on the heads of the appalled soldiery, numbers of whom were also picked off by the unerring rifles of the unseen peasantry. Favored by the open ground at the bridge of Laditsch, they constructed a temporary bridge, across which they succeeded in forcing their way on the 11th of April.

Hofer had, meanwhile, placed himself, early on the 10th, at the head of the brave peasantry of Pa.s.seyr, Algund, and Meran, and had thrown himself on the same road, somewhat to the north, near Sterzing, where a Bavarian battalion was stationed under the command of Colonel Barnklau, who, on being attacked by him, on the 11th, retreated to the Sterzinger Moos, a piece of tableland, where, drawn up in square, he successfully repulsed every attempt made to dislodge him until Hofer ordered a wagon, loaded with hay and guided by a girl,[4] to be pushed forward as a screen, behind which the Tyrolese advancing, the square was speedily broken and the whole of Barnklau's troop was either killed or taken prisoner.

The whole of the lower valley of the Inn had, on the self-same day, been raised by Joseph Speckbacher, a wealthy peasant of Rinn, the greatest hero called into existence by this fearful peasant war. The alarm-bell pealed from every church tower throughout the country. A Bavarian troop, at that time engaged in levying contributions at Axoms as a punishment for disobedience, hastily fled. The city of Hall was, on the ensuing night, taken by Speckbacher, who, after lighting about a hundred watch-fires in a certain quarter, as if about to make an attack on that side, crept, under cover of the darkness, to the gate on the opposite side, where, as a common pa.s.senger, he demanded permission to enter, took possession of the opened gate, and seized the four hundred Bavarians stationed in the city. On the 12th, he appeared before Innsbruck. Kinkel was astounded at the audacity of the peasants, whom Dittfurt glowed with impatience to punish. But the people, shouting "Vivat Franzl! Down with the Bavarians!" again rushed upon the guns and turned them upon the Bavarians, who were, moreover, exposed to a murderous fire poured upon them from the windows and towers by the citizens, who had risen in favor of the peasantry. The people of the upper valley of the Inn, headed by Major Teimer, also poured to the scene of carnage. Dittfurt performed prodigies of valor, but every effort was vain. Scornfully refusing to yield to the _canaille_, he continued, although struck by two bullets, to fight with undaunted courage, when a third stretched him on the ground; again he started up and furiously defended himself until a fourth struck him in the head. He died four days afterward in a state of wild delirium, cursing and swearing. Kinkel and the whole of the Bavarian infantry yielded themselves prisoners. The cavalry attempted to escape, but were dismounted with pitchforks by the peasantry, and the remainder were taken prisoners before Hall.

Wrede and Brisson, meanwhile, crossed the Brenner. At Sterzing, every trace of the recent conflict had been carefully obliterated, and Wrede vainly inquired the fate of Barnklau. He entered the narrow pa.s.s, and Hofer's riflemen spread death and confusion among his ranks. The strength of the allied column, nevertheless, enabled it to force its way through, and it reached Innsbruck, where, completely surrounded by the Tyrolese, it, in a few minutes, lost several hundred men, and, in order to escape utter destruction, laid down its arms. The Tyrolese entered Innsbruck in triumph, preceded by the military band belonging to the enemy, which was compelled to play, followed by Teimer and Brisson in an open carriage, and with the rest of their prisoners guarded between their ranks. Their captives consisted of two generals, ten staff-officers, above a hundred other officers, eight thousand infantry, and a thousand cavalry. Throughout the Tyrol, the arms of Bavaria were cast to the ground and all the Bavarian authorities were removed from office. The prisoners were, nevertheless, treated with the greatest humanity, the only instance to the contrary being that of a tax-gatherer, who, having once boasted that he would grind the Tyrolese down until they gladly ate hay, was, in revenge, compelled to swallow a bushel of hay for his dinner.

It was not until after these brilliant achievements on the part of the Tyrolese that Lieutenant Field-Marshal von Chasteler, a Dutchman, and the Baron von Hormayr, the imperial civil intendant, entered Innsbruck with several thousand Austrians, and that Hormayr a.s.sumed the reins of government. Two thousand French, under General Lemoine, attempted to make an inroad from Trent, but were repulsed by Hofer and his ally, Colonel Count Leiningen, who had been sent to his aid by Chasteler.

The advance of a still stronger force of the enemy under Baraguay d'Hilliers a second time against Botzen called Chasteler in person into the field, and the French, after a smart engagement near Volano, where the Herculean Pa.s.seyrers carried the artillery on their shoulders, were forced to retreat. It was on this occasion that Leiningen, who had hastily pushed too far forward, was rescued from captivity by Hofer.[5] The Vorarlberg had, meanwhile, also been raised by Teimer. A Dr. Schneider placed himself at the head of the insurgents, whose forces already extended in this direction as far as Lindau, Kempten, and Memmingen.

Napoleon's success, at this conjuncture, at Ratisbon, enabled him to despatch a division of his army into the Tyrol to quell the insurrection that had broken out to his rear. Wrede, who had been quickly exchanged and set at liberty, speedily found himself at the head of a small Bavarian force, and succeeded in driving the Austrians under Jellachich, after an obstinate and b.l.o.o.d.y resistance, out of Salzburg, on the 29th of April. Jellachich withdrew to the pa.s.s of Lueg for the purpose of placing himself in communication with the Archduke John, who was on his way from Italy. An attack made upon this position by the Bavarians being repulsed, Napoleon despatched Marshal Lefebvre, duke of Dantzig, from Salzburg with a considerable force to their a.s.sistance. Lefebvre spoke German, was a rough soldier, treated the peasants as robbers instead of legitimate foes, shot every leader who fell into his hands, and gave his soldiery license to commit every description of outrage on the villagers. The greater part of the Tyrolese occupying the pa.s.s of Strub having quitted their post on Ascension Day in order to attend divine service, the rest were, after a gallant resistance, overpowered and mercilessly butchered.

Chasteler, anxious to repair his late negligence, advanced against the Bavarians in the open valley of the Inn and was overwhelmed by superior numbers at Worgl. Speckbacher, followed by his peasantry, again made head against the enemy, whom, notwithstanding the destruction caused in his ranks by their rapid and well-directed fire, he twice drove out of Schwatz. The Bavarians, nevertheless, succeeded in forcing an entrance into the town, which they set on fire after butchering all the inhabitants, hundreds of whom were hanged to the trees or had their hands nailed to their heads. These cruelties were not, even in a single instance, imitated by the Tyrolese. The proposal to send their numerous Bavarian prisoners home maimed of one ear, as a mode of recognition in case they should again serve against the Tyrol, was rejected by Hofer. The unrelenting rage of the Bavarians was solely roused by the unsparing ridicule of the Tyrolese, by whom they were nicknamed, on account of the general burliness of their figures and their fondness for beer, Bavarian hogs, and who, the moment they came within hearing, would call out to them, as to a herd of pigs, "Tschu, Tschu, Tschu--Natsch, Natsch." The Bavarians, intoxicated with success, advanced further up the country, surrounded the village of Vomp, set it on fire amid the sound of kettledrums and hautboys, and shot the inhabitants as they attempted to escape from the burning houses. Chasteler and Hormayr were, during this robber-campaign, as it was termed by the French, proscribed as _chefs de brigands_ by Napoleon. Count Tannenberg, the descendant of the oldest of the baronial families in the Tyrol, a blind and venerable man, who was also taken prisoner _en route_, replied with dignity to the censure heaped upon him by Wrede, and at Munich defended his country's cause before the king.[6] The officers, whom he had treated with extreme politeness, rose from his hospitable board to set fire to his castle over his head. The Scharnitz was yielded, and the Bavarians under Arco penetrated also on that side into the country.--Jellachich, upon this, retired upon Carinthia, and was followed through the Pusterthal by Chasteler, who dreaded being cut off. The peasants, incredulous of their abandonment by Austria, implored, entreated him to remain, to which, for the sake of freeing himself from their importunities, he at length consented, but they had no sooner dispersed in order to summon the people again to the conflict than he retired. Hofer, on returning to the spot, merely finding a small body of troops under the command of General Buol, who had received orders to bring up the rear, threw himself in despair on a bed. Eisenstecken, his companion and adjutant, however, instantly declared that the departure of the soldiers must, at all hazards, be prevented. The officers signed a paper by which they bound themselves, even though contrary to the express orders of the general, to remain. Buol, upon this, yielded and remained, but, during the fearful battle that ensued, remained in the post-house on the Brenner, inactively watching the conflict, which terminated in the triumph of the peasantry. Hormayr completely absconded and attempted to escape into Switzerland.

Innsbruck was surrendered by Teimer to the French, on the 19th of May.