CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF THE TYROLESE. 143 



some confusion in the narrow ravines through which the road lay. 

 Th^e forests on either side of the road were filled with marksmen, 

 who kept up an incessant fire on the retreating columns, insomuch 

 so, that the Duke of Dantzic was obliged to march on foot in the 

 dress of a common soldier, to avoid being singled out by the 

 marksmen, who hung on their road. He collected his forces, 

 however, and took up a strong position in the neighbourhood of 

 the Abbey of Wilten, which had already been the scene of glori- 

 ous success to the Tyrolese. His army occupied a cluster of 

 wooded hills, which lay like the Trosacles at the foot of a vast 

 ridge of rocky mountains that formed the eastern boundary of 

 the valley. Here he was attacked at six o'clock on the morning 

 of the 12th August, by the Tyrolese, headed chiefly by the parish 

 priests in the vicinity, and under the general command of Hofer, 

 Speckbacher, and Kemenater. The battle consisted chiefly of in- 

 sulated struggles between the different bodies of the contending 

 armies, who occupied these wooded eminences ; and, after an ob- 

 stinate and most bloody contest, it was decided at midnight in 

 favour of the Tyrolese. In this action, even the wives and daugh- 

 ters of the peasants took an active share, and not only escorted 

 the prisoners who were made during the action, but resolutely 

 attacked the enemy's position, and in many instances fell by their 

 husbands' side, while storming the entrenchments which they had 

 thrown up for their defence. 



The broken remains of the French army fell back in disorder to 

 Inspruck, which they evacuated without resistance ; and continu- 

 ing their retreat along the course of the Inn, abandoned the Tyrol 

 territory. In the course of this retreat, they exercised the most 

 horrid acts of cruelty upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the 

 country. Everywhere the villages were burnt, and the peasants 

 hunted like wild beasts into the woods. Such of them as were 

 so unfortunate as to fall into their hands, of whatever age or sex, 

 were massacred without mercy. The soldiers even seemed to 

 take delight in acts of destruction, from which no advantage could 

 arise to themselves ; and burned the houses which were deserted 

 by their inhabitants, and in which they could discover no articles 

 of sufficient value to reward the trouble of plundering. The 

 beautiful town of Schwatz, on the Inn, was entirely burned by 

 these merciless invaders ; and to this day the traveller can mark 

 the progress of their armies, by the ruined houses and the shat- 



