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
"My friend at they will hereafter say that I was alone to blame for
the failure of my plans," cried the archduke, with a mournful smile;
"they will charge me with having been unable to carry out the
grandiloquent promises which I made to the emperor and the Tyrolese,
and the emperor will exult at the discomfiture of the boastful
archduke who took it upon himself to call out the whole people of
the Tyrol, put himself at their head, and successfully defend
against all enemies this fortress which God and Nature erected for
Austria. The faithful Tyrolese have taken up arms; I am ready to put
myself at their head, but already I have been removed from the
Tyrol, and my arm is paralyzed so that I can no longer stretch it
out to take the hand which the Tyrol is holding out to me
beseechingly. If I had been permitted to advance after the victories
which my army gained over the Viceroy of Italy and Marmont, I should
probably now already have expelled the enemy from Upper Italy and
the Southern Tyrol. But I was not allowed to follow up my successes;
I was stopped in the midst of my victorious career. Because the
generalissimo's army had been defeated at Ratisbon, I was compelled,
instead of pursuing the enemy energetically and obliging him to keep
on the defensive, to retreat myself, and, instead of being the
pursuer, be pursued by the forces of the viceroy. Instead of going
to the Tyrol, I was ordered by the generalissimo to turn toward
Hungary and unite with the volunteers in that country. No sooner had
I done so, than I was ordered to advance again toward the Southern
Tyrol, march upon Villach and Salzburg, unite with Jellachich, form
a connection with Field-Marshal Giulay, and operate with them in the
rear of the enemy, who was already in the immediate neighborhood of
Vienna. And he who gave me these orders did not know that Jellachich
had in the meantime been beaten at Wurzl; that Villach had been
occupied by the French; that I was not in the rear of the enemy, but
that the enemy was in my rear; be did not or would not know that the
Viceroy of Italy was in my rear with thirty-six thousand men, and
that the Duke of Dantzic was in front of my position at Salzburg.
Since then we have been moving about amidst incessant skirmishes and
incessant losses; and scarcely had we reached Comorn to re-organize
and re-enforce my little army, when we received orders to march to
the island of Schutt and toward Presburg. I vainly tried to
remonstrate and point to the weakness and exhaustion of my troops; I
vainly asked for time to reorganize my forces, when I would attack
Macdonald and prevent him from uniting with Napoleon. I vainly
proved that this was his intention, and that no one could hinder him
from carrying it into effect, so soon as I had to turn toward
Presburg and open to Macdonald the road to Vienna. My remonstrances
were disregarded; pains were taken to prove to me that I was but a
tool, a wheel in the great machine of state, and the orders were
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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