Andreas Hofer | Page 4

IV
The Emperor and his Brothers V The Performance of "The Creation"
VI Andreas Hofer VII Andreas Hofer at the Theatre VIII Consecration
of the Flags, and Farewell IX Tis Time! X Anthony Wallner of
Windisch-Matrey XI The Declaration of Love XII Farewell! XIII The

Bridegroom XIV The Bridge of St. Lawrence XV The Bridge of
Laditch XVI On the Sterzinger Moos XVII The Hay-Wagons XVIII
Capture of Innspruck XIX The Capitulation of Wiltau XX Eliza
Wallner's Return XXI The Catastrophe XXII Eliza and Ulrich XXIII
The Triumph of Death XXIV The Archduke John at Comorn XXV The
Emperor Francis at Wolkersdorf XXVI The Reply of the King of
Prussia XXVII The Battle of Wagram XXVIII The Armistice of Znaym
XXIX Hofer and Speckbacher XXX The Capuchin's Oath XXXI The
First Battle XXXII The Fifteenth of August at Innspruck XXXIII
Andreas Hofer, the Emperor's Lieutenant XXXIV The Fifteenth of
August at Comorn XXXV A Day of the Emperor's Lieutenant XXXVI
The Lovers XXXVII Elza's Return XXXVIII The Wedding XXXIX
The Treaty of Peace XL Dreadful Tidings XLI Betrayal and Seizure of
Hofer XLII The Warning XLIII The Flight XLIV Andreas Hofer's
Death

CHAPTER I
.
1809.
The year 1809 had come; but the war against France, so intensely
longed for by all Austria, had not yet broken out, and the people and
the army were vainly waiting for the war-cry of their sovereign, the
Emperor Francis. It is true, not a few great things bad been
accomplished in the course of the past year: Austria had armed,
organized the militia, strengthened her fortresses, and filled her
magazines; but the emperor still hesitated to take the last and most
decisive step by crowning his military preparations with a formal
declaration of war.
No one looked for this declaration of war more intensely than the
emperor's second brother, the Archduke John, a young man of scarcely
twenty-seven. He had been the soul of all the preparations which, since
the summer of 1808, had been made throughout Austria; he had
conceived the plan of organizing the militia and the reserves; and had
drawn up the proclamation of the 12th of May, 1808, by which all
able-bodied Austrians were called upon to take up arms. But this
exhausted his powers; he could organize the army, but could not say to

it, "Take the field against the enemy!" The emperor alone could utter
this word, and he was silent.
"And he will be silent until the favorable moment has passed," sighed
the Archduke John, when, on returning from a very long interview with
the emperor, he was alone with his friend, General Nugent, in his
cabinet.
He had communicated to this confidant the full details of his interview
with the emperor, and concluded his report by saying, with a deep sigh,
"The emperor will be silent until the favorable moment has passed!"
Count Nugent gazed with a look of heart-felt sympathy into the
archduke's mournful face; he saw the tears filling John's large blue eyes;
he saw that he firmly compressed his lips as if to stifle a cry of pain or
rage, and that he clinched his hands in the agony of his despair.
Animated by tender compassion, the general approached the archduke,
who had sunk into a chair, and laid his hand gently on his shoulder.
"Courage, courage!" he whispered; "nothing is lost as yet, and your
imperial highness--"
"Ah, why do you address me with `imperial highness'?" cried the
archduke, almost indignantly. "Do you not see, then, that this is a
miserable title by which Fate seems to mock me, and which it thunders
constantly, and, as it were, sneeringly into my ears, in order to remind
me again and again of my deplorable powerlessness? There is nothing
'imperial' about me but the yoke under which I am groaning; and my
`highness' is to be compared only with the crumbs of Lazarus which
fell from the rich man's table. And yet there are persons, Nugent, who
envy me these crumbs--men who think it a brilliant and glorious lot to
be an 'imperial highness,' the brother of a sovereign emperor! Ah, they
do not know that this title means only that I am doomed to everlasting
dependence and silence, and that the emperor's valet de chambre and
his private secretary are more influential men than the Archduke John,
who cannot do anything but submit, be silent, and look on in idleness."
"Now your imperial highness slanders yourself," exclaimed Count
Nugent. "You have not been silent, you have not looked on in idleness,
but have worked incessantly and courageously for the salvation of your
people and your country. Who drew up the original plan for the
organization of the militia and the reserves? Who elaborated its most
minute details with admirable sagacity? It was the