He was speedily tried by a court-martial, which sat in the Palazzo d'Arco. Its president was General Bisson, already embittered against him and his cause by his own defeat. On comparing the votes, a great difference of opinion was found as to the nature of his sentence. The majority were for simple confinement: one or two had the courage to vote for his complete acquittal; but a telegraph from Milan decided the question by decreeing _death in twenty-four hours_,--thus putting the mediation of Austria beyond his reach. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XXI. TYRANNY RAMPANT, GRACE TRIUMPHANT. Hofer, though not expecting so sudden a doom, received the announcement of it with fortitude. "Let me see a priest," said he. Father Manifesti, a dignified and venerable old man, immediately came to him, and remained with him to the hour of his death. The greater part of the night was spent in devotional exercises; the remainder in conversing on the war; in the course of which, Hofer expressed his firm conviction that the Tyrol must and would eventually revert to Austria. He also penned the following letter to an old friend and neighbour in the Passeyrthal:-- "MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, "It is the will of God, that here, at Mantua, I change a mortal for an eternal state. But, thanks be to God! this step appears as easy to me as if it were to conduct me elsewhere; and He will, doubtless, support me, and conduct me safely to the end, that my soul may join the company of the elect, in that place where it may be permitted to me to implore his mercy towards all those so dear to me here below; those, especially, whose kindnesses have reached me. You, yourself, my very dear friend, and your wife, are included among the latter; and my thanks are yours for the little book, and for many things else. Pray for me!--you and all the dear friends who yet live in the world I am leaving,--pray for me! that I may be delivered from the purgatory where I must otherwise, perhaps, suffer for my sins. "My very dear wife will take care that mass shall be said, and a requiem sung, in the Chapel of St. Martin, and that prayers shall be put up in the parish churches. The innkeeper will provide meat and soup, and half a pot of wine, for each of my friends and relatives. "My dear Puhler, go yourself to St. Martin, and tell all to the innkeeper: he will do what is necessary; but do not say a word to any other person of the affair. "May you, and all whom I leave behind me, be well and happy in this world, till we meet in a better, and praise God for ever. I beg all my friends, and the inhabitants of Passeyr, to remember me in their prayers. Let not my dear wife afflict herself too much on account of my death. I will pray for her, and for all, in the presence of God. "Farewell, fleeting world! death appears so sweet as to render life unworthy of a tear.