p them but
little. "The Tyroler's hand alone must save Tyrol," he exclaimed. "If
that cannot be, then God pity us; for there is no mercy to be looked for
from our enemies!"

If many a bold and patriotic heart sorrowed over these things, not one
felt them with a more intense sense of anguish than little Hans Joergle.
The French, who had crushed his country, had killed his father; and now
they were coming to bring fire and sword among those lonely glens, where
his widowed mother had hoped to live her last years peacefully. Oh! if
he had been a man to stand beside his father in the day of battle, or if
even now he could hope to see the time when he should be strong of limb
as he was of heart... a burst of tears was the ever-present interruption
to utterings which, in the eagerness of his devotion, he could not
resist from making aloud.

These thoughts now took entire possession of his mind. If the clatter
of horses' hoofs was heard unusually loud over the wooden bridge in
the valley, Hans would start up and cry, "Here they are!--the cavalry
picquets are upon us!" If a Bauer-house in the plain caught fire, it was
the French were approaching and burning the villages. The rumbling of
heavily-laden sledges over the hard snow was surely "the drums of the
advanced guard;" and never could the ring of jaeger's rifle be heard,
that he did not exclaim, "Here come the skirmishers!" If the worthy
villagers were indifferent to these various false alarms, the epithets
and terms of war employed by Hans realised no small portions of its
terror; and while they could afford to smile at his foolish fears,
they exchanged very grave looks when he spoke of cavalry squadrons,
and looked far from happy at the picture of a brigade of artillery in
position on the bridge, while the tirailleurs ascended the face of the
mountain in scattered parties.

While the winter continued, and the snow lay deep upon the roads, and
many of the bridges were removed for safety from the drifting ice, the
difficulties to a marching force were almost insurmountable; but as the
spring came, and the highways cleared, the rumour again grew rife that
the enemy was preparing his blow: the great doubt was, by which of the
Alpine passes he would advance.

Staff-officers and engineers had been despatched from Vienna to visit
the various defiles, and suggest the most efficient modes of defence.
Unhappily, however, all their counsels were given with a total ignorance
of th