A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4

W >> Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks >> Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4




The tragedy drew to a close. Hofer returned to his native vale, where
the people of Passeyr 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 participation 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 circumjacent 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 ennobled. Count Alexander of
Wurtemberg has poetically described the restoration of his remains to
the Tyrol, for which he so nobly 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 passes,
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 Passeyrthal, 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 buttons.
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 balls 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 anticipate 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 balls 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 ships
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 Jäger, he unhesitatingly dashed the melted
fat of the animal into their faces, and, quick as lightning, dealt
each of them a deathblow with the butt-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, Tschöll 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 Kisbüchl, 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 Mühlan, 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 famishing 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 balls of the
Tyrolese sharpshooters. A man of Passeyr 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 God'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 God and to all
piously-disposed persons. It is hoped that they will, by better
behavior, preserve themselves from the punishment of God, 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, Pöhler, "My beloved, the hostess, is to have mass 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 God. 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 God."]



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 sturdy 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 documents 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, harassed 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 principalities 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 Staël
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 Français,"

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 quantity of British goods was confiscated, the press was
placed under the strictest censorship, the _Erzähler_ 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 assumed 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
ambassador'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 ambassador'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 entitled "King of Rome," in notification of his future
destiny to succeed his father on the throne of the Roman empire.[5]

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