[Illustration] * * * * * THE YEAR NINE. _A Tale of the Tyrol._ BY THE AUTHOR OF "MARY POWELL." _Pro libertate victi, pro fama victores._ LONDON: Printed for ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, & CO. 25, _Paternoster Row_. 1858. * * * * * CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. THE THUNDER STORM 1 CHAPTER II. THE INN KITCHEN 12 CHAPTER III. THE SHOOTING MATCH 25 CHAPTER IV. WOLFSTHRUN 40 CHAPTER V. "'TIS TIME!" 47 CHAPTER VI. THE FIRST SUCCESS 63 CHAPTER VII. INNSBRUCK 78 CHAPTER VIII. STILL SUCCESSFUL 92 CHAPTER IX. HOME 103 CHAPTER X. GUERILLA WARFARE 118 CHAPTER XI. TYROLESE COURTSHIP 130 CHAPTER XII. BERG ISEL 145 CHAPTER XIII. THE LATTER END OF A FRAY, AND THE BEGINNING OF A FEAST 159 CHAPTER XIV. TROUBLED WATERS 171 CHAPTER XV. THE GORGE OF THE EISACH 182 CHAPTER XVI. THE THIRD VICTORY OF BERG ISEL 195 CHAPTER XVII. REVERSES 210 CHAPTER XVIII. DANGER 224 CHAPTER XIX. WINTER ON THE MOUNTAINS 239 CHAPTER XX. THE CHÂLET 253 CHAPTER XXI. TYRANNY RAMPANT, GRACE TRIUMPHANT 266 [Illustration] THE YEAR NINE. CHAPTER I. THE THUNDER STORM. It was dusk; and the mountains were reverberating with loud thunder-claps, while the rain helped to swell a turbid river that swept through the valley, and past the door of a small _wirth-haus_ or inn, known less by its sign of "The Crown," than as "am Sand," by reason of the strip of sand on which it was built.