142 



CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF THE TYROLESE. 



that the French were literally obliged to cut them down in the 

 stations assigned to them, and to draw their cannon over the dead 

 bodies of those who had fallen. Even in the last agonies of life, 

 this stern and desperate valour did not desert them, insomuch 

 that the wounded men, who were disabled from using their wea- 

 pons, and lay weltering in their blood on the road, clung to the 

 wheels of the artillery that was advancing, and loosed not their 

 desperate grasp till death relaxed their hold. The French artil- 

 lery, like the car of the god Jagaurnaut, ploughed its way through 

 the dead and the dying, and crushed beneath its wheels the mul- 

 titudes who sacrificed themselves to arrest its progress. 



Peter Lanshner, the parish priest of Weitendale, commanded 

 at this critical point, and displayed the greatest valour in the de- 

 fence of his station. He was acquainted with the plan of the ac- 

 tion which Hofer had suggested, which was to throw a column of 

 peasants in the rear of the mountains on the left hand of the Ty- 

 rolese army, which was destined to descend at twelve o'clock in 

 the rear of the enemy. If he could keep his ground till that 

 hour, the victory was secure. It was now half-past eleven, and 

 no symptoms of the troops upon the ridge of the mountains had 

 yet appeared, while the French, notwithstanding the most heroic 

 resistance, had penetrated to the very foot of the tower which he 

 occupied. The first discharges of artillery brought down its tot- 

 tering walls, and the Bavarians were on the very point of rushing 

 in, when the shouts from higher parts of the line announced the 

 appearance of the columns which had been detached to the rear 

 of the enemy. For an instant the firing on both sides ceased, in 

 expectation of some inteUigence of the event which had occasion- 

 ed this tumult ; and, as the smoke cleared, away the Tryolese be- 

 held their countrymen occupying in great force, at a vast height 

 above them, the rocky ridge on the left hand, and the broad 

 banner of Austria waving on the summit of the snowy cliffs that 

 shut in the valley on the western side. This joyful event was 

 instantly communicated to all parts of the patriot army ; and the 

 French, perceiving the column in their rear descending to attack 

 them, fell back on all sides, and rapidly retraced their steps 

 down the course of the stream which they had recently ascended. 



Their retreat for some time was conducted with considerable 

 order and skill ; but the numbers of the peasantry increased as 

 they advanced, and the columns of the French inevitably fell into 



