Andreas Hofer: An Historical NovelMühlbach, L. (Luise)
History
Andreas Hofer: An Historical Novel
Mühlbach, L. (Luise)
Hofer, Andreas, 1767-1810 -- Fiction; Tyrol (Austria) -- History -- Uprising of 1809 -- Fiction
The unheard-of event, then, had taken place. Napoleon had been
defeated by the Austrians. The Archduke Charles had gained a
brilliant victory; Napoleon had transferred his whole army to the
island of Lobau; he himself passed his time in moody broodings at
the castle of Ebersberg, and the unexpected disaster which had
befallen him and which at the same time had brought about the death
of one of his favorites, Marshal Lannes, seemed to have suddenly
deprived the emperor of all his energy. He did not speak, he did not
eat; he sat for whole days in his cabinet, staring at the maps
spread out before him on his table, and yet forgetting to cover
them, as he used to do on conceiving the plans of his campaigns,
with the colored pins which represented the different armies.
Victory had no longer been able to soften this marble Caesarean
face, but defeat caused his features now to wear an expression of
profound anger and grief. Nevertheless, he did not complain, and
never did he confess even to his confidants that he was suffering.
Only once, for a brief moment, he lifted the veil concealing his
feelings, and permitted his marshals to see into the innermost
recesses of his soul. Marmont had dared to pray the emperor, in the
name of all the marshals, to yield no longer to his grief at what
had occurred, but bear in mind that it was incumbent on him to
preserve himself for the welfare of his subjects and the glory of
his future. Napoleon had answered with a faint smile: "You think I
am sitting here to brood over my misfortune? It is true, I am
burying my dead, and, as there are unfortunately a great many of
them, it takes me a long time to do it. But over the tomb of the
dead of Essling I am going to erect a monument which will be radiant
with the splendor of victory, and on its frontispiece shall be read
the word 'Vengeance!' The Emperor of Austria is lost. Had I defeated
him in this battle, I should, perhaps, have forgiven his arrogance
and perfidy; but as he defeated me, I must and shall annihilate him
and his army."
While Napoleon was thus burying his dead, and reflecting on his
"monument of vengeance," the utmost rejoicings reigned at the
headquarters of the Archduke Charles, the victor of Aspern; and all
Austria, all Germany joined in these rejoicings, and blessed the
glorious day of Bonaparte's first humiliation.
And this victory was soon followed by the news of a triumph hardly
less glorious than the battle of Aspern. The Tyrolese, those
despised peasants, had gained a brilliant victory over the French
veterans, and their Bavarian auxiliaries, on the 21st of May, on
Mount Isel, near the city of Innspruck. Andreas Hofer, commander-in-
chief of the united forces of the Tyrolese, jointly with
Speckbacher, Wallner, and the Capuchin Haspinger, had again defeated
the Bavarians and French, who had re-entered the Tyrol, and
delivered the province a second time from the enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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