CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF THE TYROLESE, 141 



what elated by their recent success, resolved to give battle to the 

 enetny. For this purpose they took post near the foot of Mount 

 Brenner, in the valley which leads towards that pass from the 

 Inn Thai. The scene of this action was of a more sohtary and 

 gloomy character than any which had hitherto occurred during 

 the war. On either side, steep and rugged hills arose, covered 

 with scattered fir and larch, with their summits clothed with per- 

 petual snow. Immediately in the rear of their position, towered 

 the bare and inaccessible peaks of Mount Brenner, bearing on 

 their summits an immense glacier, presenting, to all appearance, 

 an insurmountable obstacle to human approach. It was in this 

 desolate and gloomy scene that the Tyrolese took their station, 

 with their armies stretching up the mountains on either side, and 

 their centre supported by a small tower which had been built in 

 former times in the narrowest part of the valley, to guard the 

 pass. The chiefs, being conscious that the fate of their country 

 depended on the issue of that day, made every effort to animate 

 their troops, and, in the night succeeding the battle, went through 

 the different ranks to ascertain the temper of the soldiers. They 

 found them firm and resolute in their purpose to defend them- 

 selves to the last extremity, and sell their lives as dearly as possi- 

 ble, if all hopes of ultimate success were lost. At two in the 

 morning mass was said by the friar Joachim, at which all the 

 other leaders of the army assisted, and they then separated and 

 took their station at their several posts. These brave men, at 

 parting, took leave of each other as if their last hour was come ; 

 and, hke the three hundred Spartans in the defile of Thermopylae, 

 thought only of meeting again in another world. 



The action commenced at daybreak, by the French pushing 

 forward a large column, supported by cavalry and artillery, on the 

 high road, towards the old tower which formed the centre of the 

 position of the enemy. They were received with a rolling fire 

 from all parts of the valley, and lost an immense number of men 

 in advancing over the small space of ground which separated the 

 two armies. By pushing forward column after column, however, 

 they gradually gained ground, and their artillery, before two 

 o'clock, were brought up close to the tower in which the Tyrolese 

 were placed. Sensible of the importance of retaining this impor- 

 tant post, the patriots vigorously withstood the battalions who ad- 

 vanced ; and so stubborn was the resistance which they presented, 



