His long black beard was a very noticeable feature of his appearance reaching to his waist. He had been one of the representatives of Pusterthal to the Diet of 1790, which shows that he had travelled a little and was educated. The traffic he had carried on in wine and horses had led to his meeting people of many races, and he spoke Italian fluently though in the Venetian dialect. He wore the dress of his country, a large black hat with a broad brim, adorned with black ribbons and a black curling feather, a short green coat, red waistcoat, over which were green braces, a broad black girdle with a border, short black breeches with red or black stockings, and occasionally boots. Such are the details which have come down to us from his contemporaries. [Illustration: INNSBRUCK (TYROL)] In 1797 Buonaparte, having frightened Italy into submission, crossed the Alps and advanced on Vienna. The Austrian monarch thereupon sued for peace, and for the moment gained it, but as is invariably the case, weakness defeats its own end, and he was made to yield more and more as he gave way. The whole map of Europe was disorganised and remade to suit the conqueror’s will without regard to justice or right, and in the beginning of the new century worse followed, for Buonaparte, having meantime been over into Egypt, returned to Europe and marched upon Vienna, entering it as a victor. This time he snatched away again the Venetian territory he had previously granted to Austria as payment for her compliance, and handed over the whole of the Tyrol to Bavaria. This infamous transaction was endorsed by the Treaty of Pressburg. The Tyrolese, however, had not been idle during the quiet years, but had organised and trained their forces and were not in the least disposed to acquiesce. Austria had treated them shamefully, but they, for their part, were willing to fight for the rights so iniquitously reft away. Terrible fighting ensued between the Bavarians and their allies the French, who entered the Tyrol, and the natives under the leadership of Hofer and his comrade Speckbacher, with the support of Haspinger the Capuchin, who did not fight but inspired others to do so. The Tyrolese began by inflicting an overwhelming defeat on the invaders at Sterzing, where they made every use of narrow passes and their knowledge of the country. When the battle raged in the passes, the peasants, who had stationed themselves on the heights, hurled down masses of rock, tree-trunks, and stones upon their enemies beneath, and speedily disorganised them.