e means of those by whom they were to be executed. To speak of
fortifying Landeck, and entrenching here and stockading there, sounded
like an unknown tongue to these poor chamois-hunters, whose sole idea of
defence lay in the cover of a crag and the certainty of a rifle bullet.

Disappointed, then, in their hope of aid, they betook themselves to
their own devices, and hit upon a plan the most perfectly adapted to
the crisis, as well as the most suitable to their own means of
accomplishment. Is it necessary that I should speak of what is so
familiar to every reader? the rude preparations of the Tyrolers to
defend their native defiles, by trunks of trees and fragments of rocks,
so disposed that at a word they could be hurled from the mountains down
into the valleys beneath.

The pass I here speak of was eminently suited for this, not only from
its narrowness and the precipitate nature of its sides, but that the
timber was large and massive, and the rocks, in many cases, so detached
by the action of the torrents, that little force was required to move
them. Once free, they swept down the steep sides, crushing all before
them; loosening others as they went, and with a thunder louder than
any artillery, plunging into the depths below. Simple as these means of
defence may seem--it is but necessary to have once seen the country to
acknowledge how irresistible they must have been--there was positively
no chance of escape left. The road, exposed in its entire length, lay
open to view; beneath it, roared a foaming torrent, above, stood cliffs
and crags the hardiest hunter could not clamber; and if, perchance, some
little path led upwards to a mountain _chalet_ or a Dorf, a handful of
Tyrol riflemen could have defended it against an army.

All was arranged early in the year, and it was determined that the
revolt should break forth a week or ten days before the time when the
Bavarians were to march the reliefs to the various garrisons--a movement
which, it was known, would take place in the spring. By signal-fires in
the mountain-tops, intimation was to be given to those who inhabited the
Alpine regions; while for those in the plains, and particularly in the
valley of the Inn--the great line of operations--the signal was to be
given by sawdust thrown on the surface of the stream. A month, or
even more, was to elapse from the time I have just spoken of ere the
preparations would be fully made. What an interval of intense anxiety
w