1826.] Lieutenant Strauenbach, the Sharpi/iooter. GO I 



It was now between twelve and one ; the troops had been out four 

 hours, and as no symptoms of the insurgents had appeared, and every 

 soul was heartily tired, the order was given to return. The wliole corps 

 were instantly en route with gladdened hearts ; but even this had now 

 become no trivial matter. The road, bad enough before, was now 

 ten-times worse ; the ascents were so slippery as to be almost inacces- 

 sible ; the descents were but so many precipices — plunging them into so 

 many torrents, as every rivulet had now swelled into a furious stream. 

 The Laybach river this night had many a knapsack and pouch carried 

 down its flood from the tributary streams of the hills. 



In two hours more it would be morning, and the storm had at length 

 begun to subside. But fighting was altogether out of the question, in 

 the present dilapidated state of tlie " grand army" of Laybacli. They 

 were now toiling their slow way along the verge of the hollow in whicn 

 the Quicksilver Mines lie, and which, from its shape and perpetual 

 vapour, puts the traveller in mind of the boiler of a steam-engine ; but, 

 however picturesque for the eye of the tourist, a more vexatious route 

 for a drenched army could not have been found in all Germany. 



On a sudden, the old guide pointed to something that through the 

 fog looked like the light in a cottage window. In a moment it had 

 disappeared, and was in another followed by successive lights. The 

 Colonel was an old soldier, and had learned his first lessons in the moun- 

 tain battles of the Brisgau. Tlie troops were instantly closed up, and 

 ordered to stand to their arms — but the order had been scarcely given, 

 before a shower of shot was poured in upon the position. Some men 

 were J;nocked down close to the Colonel, and among them the old guide. 

 De Talmont was proverbially brave, and cared nothing about giving 

 or taking death ; but he had humanity about him still, and he stooped 

 down to give the dying man a draught of wine out of his canteen. The 

 peasant swallowed it with diificulty, and dropped back on the ground 

 with a deep groan. The firing had suddenly ceased, or was kept up 

 only by the French flankers, who sent out a random shot now and then, 

 without, however, knowing on which side the assailants were to be found. 

 The word was again given to move, and the column began to pass down 

 the sharp declivity above the village of Idria : but this declivity is seven 

 hundred feet by the plumbline ; and it may be imagined that, in utter 

 darkness, it was not the easiest path in the world for a drenched and 

 harassed jiarly of foreigners. They had not descended half a hundred 

 feet when a rifle flashed full in the Colonel's face ; and this signal was 

 followed by a rapid running fire, that seemed to circle the whole valley. 

 The column feebly attempted to recover the high ground, but the balls 

 came in showers frcm the ridge ; to make their way down to the village 

 was as much out of the question, unless they rolled themselves down 

 the scarped precipice, where none but a dead man could ever reach the 

 bottom ; to stand where they were was impossible, for the bullets were 

 rakinc their exposed column in all directions. 



The Colonel had now foimd out his error, and with a iew desperate 

 men made a rush to the summit ; the fire gradually paused on both sides 

 from the excessive darkness, and he made good his footing ; but out of his 

 five hundred not above fifty could be gathered round him — the rest had 

 been either shot or scattered through the forest. With that fifty, however, 

 he made a bold stand, and the firing began to be vivid again, when the felt 

 himself suddenly grasped by the neck. The grasp was that of a giant : 



M. M. AVu- Serin.— -\o\.. I. No. 6. 4 II 



