dislocated. The utmost he could do, and that with agonizing
pain, was to drag himself to a neighboring hut. Here were two men, who
carried him to his own house at Rinn.

Bavarians were quartered in the house, and the only place of refuge open
to him was the cow-shed, where his faithful servant Zoppel dug for him a
hole beneath the bed of one of the cows, and daily supplied him with
food. His wife had returned to the house, but the danger of discovery
was so great that even she was not told of his propinquity.

For seven weeks he remained thus half buried in the cow-shed, gradually
recovering his strength. At the end of that time he rose, bade adieu to
his wife, who now first learned of his presence, and again betook
himself to the high paths of the mountains, from which the sun of May
had freed the snow. He reached Vienna without further trouble.

Here the brave patriot received no thanks for his services. Even a small
estate he had purchased with the remains of his property he was forced
to relinquish, not being able to complete the purchase. He would have
been reduced to beggary but for Hofer's son, who had received a fine
estate from the emperor, and who engaged him as his steward. Thus ended
the active career of the ablest leader in the Tyrolean war.

_THE OLD EMPIRE AND THE NEW._

During the Christmas festival of the year 800 the crown of the imperial
dignity was placed at Rome on the head of Charles the Great, and the
Roman Empire of the West again came into being, so far as a dead thing
could be restored to life. For one thousand and six years afterwards
this title of emperor was retained in Germany, though the power
represented by it became at times a very shadowy affair. The authority
and influence of the emperors reached their culmination during the reign
of the Hohenstauffens (1138 to 1254). For a few centuries afterwards the
title represented an empire which was but a quarter fact, three-quarters
tradition, the emperor being duly elected by the diet of German princes,
but by no means submissively obeyed. The fraction of fact which remained
of the old empire perished in the Thirty Years' War. After that date the
title continued in existence, being held by the Hapsburgs of Austria as
an hereditary dignity, but the empire had vanished except as a tradition
or superstition. Finally, on the 6th of August, 1806, Francis II., at
the absolute dictum of Napoleon, laid down the title of "Emperor of the
Ho