CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF THE TYROLESE. 



135 



seemed most weakly guarded. But in the middle of the night, 

 while they were treading softly through a broken tract of rocks 

 and underwood, they came upon a detachment of one hundred 

 Bavarian dragoons. They had gone too far to recede ; but, never- 

 theless, they hesitated for a moment before they ventured to at- 

 tack their opponents, who were leaning on their arms, round a 

 blazing fire, with their horses standing on the outside of the circle. 

 Being determined, however, to risk everything rather than aban- 

 don their purpose, they levelled their rifles, and by their first dis- 

 charge killed and wounded several of the enemy. During the 

 confusion which ensued upon this unexpected attack, they loaded 

 their pieces, and hastily mounting the clifF^ fired again before 

 their numbers were perceived. The Bavarians, conceiving that 

 they were beset by a large body of the peasantry, fled in all direc- 

 tions; and Speckbacher, with his brave associates, succeeded in 

 penetrating before morning to the outposts of their countrymen. 



One of the severest actions in the war was fought in the ravines 

 of Mount Isel, on the 29 th of May. The ground here was singu- 

 larly adapted for the peculiar kind of warfare in which the Tyro- 

 lese excelled, and had been selected with much judgment by their 

 leader, to awaken and animate the courage of the peasantry. It 

 consists of a variety of wooded knolls, intersected with ravines, 

 and surrounded by shapeless piles of bare rock. The great road 

 which traverses these mountains, winds up these little valleys, and 

 sweeps round the base of the wooded hills that surround them, 

 through villages and detached cottages of the most perfect beauty. 

 In one of the most secluded spots of this romantic district is situ- 

 ted the Abbey of Wilten, to which a superstitious veneration has 

 long been paid by the people. It had long ago been prophesied, 

 that the neighbourhood of the Abbey was to be the scene of the 

 greatest triumphs to the Tyrolese ; and the imaginations of the 

 people, already warmed by the events of the war, looked forward 

 with confidence to the accomplishment of the prophecy, in the 

 events of the war which had assumed so interesting a character. 

 Here, accordingly, Hofer collected all his forces, and exerted all 

 his eflbrts to animate their spirits. The whole male population 

 of the southern and western valleys w^ere, by his exertions, assem- 

 bled ; a motley group, led on by leaders of various kinds, and 

 bound together only by the sense of their common danger, and 

 their common enthusiasm against the enemy. 



