136 CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF THE TYROLESE. 



During tlie night which preceded the battle, the friars traversed 

 the different positions of the peasantry, and assisted in their devo- 

 tions, and animated them to the com^ageous discharge of their 

 duty. Many of these brave men actually joined the combatants, 

 and were seen the next day, in their cowl and sandals, exposed to 

 the hottest of the fire, sustaining the courage of the soldiers, and 

 i?dministering the consolations of religion to those that fell in bat- 

 tle. 'Nov let it be imagined that these efforts, on the part of the 

 clergy, were either unnecessary, or unattended with important 

 consequences on the issue of the contest. The Tyrolese were at 

 this period entirely abandoned by the Austrians ; they were 

 pressed on all sides by the victorious arms of the French, and had 

 retired to their central fastnesses as the last asylum of liberty and 

 religion. To. veteran troops, trained to war, Jed on by chiefs of 

 consummate ability, and provided with everything necessary for 

 its prosecution, they could oppose only hasty levies, destitute of 

 artillery and of equipments, and ignorant even of the rudiments 

 of the military art. What is still more, to troops who had been 

 tried in innumerable combats, and who had stood side by side 

 during a long and eventful war, they had to oppose men entirely 

 ignorant of each other, and distrustful, like all inexperienced troops, 

 of the courage and fidelity of their comrades in arms. It was 

 the clergy who supplied the link that bound this unconnected 

 mass together — it was their exhortations that gave them a com- 

 mon feeling and animated them by common hopes — and it was 

 the spirit which they kindled that communicated to the shepherds 

 of the Alps, in their first essay in arms, that heroic and generous 

 confidence in each other which constitutes at once the strength 

 and the pride of veteran soldiers. 



To such a pitch, accordingly, was the enthusiasm of the people 

 wound up, that not only the little children, but even the women, 

 were engaged in the great battle which ensued. The French ob- 

 served, that the prisoners taken from them by the enemy were for 

 the most part guarded by women only ; and they at first ima- 

 gined that this was done in derision ; but the fact was, that the 

 whole male population of the country had taken up arms, and 

 were actually engaged in the front of the combat. The little 

 children whose age would not permit them to bear arms, still lin- 

 gered about the ranks of their fathers, and sought, by any little 

 offices, to render themselves useful in the common cause. One 



