TYROL AND THE TYROLESE 



the Capuchin monk, and a chamois- hunter of the 

 name of Speckbacher. With their help, he formed 

 the hardy, sport-loving mountaineers into a rough 

 army, eager and ready to fight to the death for their 

 beloved country and Emperor. 



On the evening of April loth, 1809, vast beacon 

 fires flared from the snow-clad peaks ; and by the 

 end of the month Tyrol was free. 



At this moment the Kaiser gave the command of 

 the troops to General Chasteler, and he quickly lost 

 all that Hofer had won. 



Still the peasants did not despair. Again An- 

 dreas Hofer gathered an army, and, for the second 

 time, stormed Innsbruck, and cleared Tyrol of its 

 enemies. 



But, though the simple landlord of a country inn 

 was victorious, the Austrian Field Marshals were 

 not. Beaten on the banks of the blue Danube, in 

 the battle of Wagram, the Emperor signed the 

 armistice of Znaim, and in that convention Tyrol 

 was ignored ! 



Hofer would not believe it ; and, when he saw 

 the Austrian troops retire from Innsbruck before 

 Marshal Lefebvre and his 50,000 men, he swore that 

 he would once more conquer or die. 



From a distant valley far up the mountains he 

 sent forth his call to arms. Not only every able- 

 bodied man who could carry a rifle obeyed the 



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