United States or Iraq ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The tragedy drew to a close. Hofer returned to his native vale, where the people of Passeyr and Algund, resolved at all hazards not to submit to the depredations of the Italian brigands under Rusca, flocked around him and compelled him to place himself at their head for a last and desperate struggle.
Above Meran, the French were thrown in such numbers from the Franzosenbuhl, which still retains its name, that "they fell like a shower of autumnal leaves into the city." The horses belonging to a division of cavalry intended to surround the insurgent peasantry were all that returned; their riders had been shot to a man. Rusca lost five hundred dead and one thousand seven hundred prisoners.
Burscheidt reached Innsbruck with merely a handful of men, completely worn out by the incessant pursuit. Rusca had set two hundred farms on fire. Twelve hundred of his men were killed, and his retreat was accelerated by Steger's threat to roast him, in case he fell into his hands, like a scorpion, within a fiery circle. Peyry did not venture into the country.
Our men intercepted it; hence, Joseph Turk did not occupy the fortress, and General Rusca has arrived there already." "It is my letter, indeed," sighed Andreas Hofer, staring at the paper which Hormayr had handed to him. "They did not allow it to reach Joseph Turk; they no longer respect what I say and do."
These water-conduits, the work of Bernardo Bianco and Francesco Rusca, illustrate the departure of the earlier Renaissance from the Gothic style. They are gargoyles; but they have lost the grotesque element. At the same time the sculptor, while discarding Gothic tradition, has not betaken himself yet to a servile imitation of the antique.
Buol, in order to cover his retreat, sent back eleven guns and nine hundred Bavarian prisoners to General Rusca, who continued to threaten the Pusterthal. In the mountains all was tranquil, and the advance of the French columns was totally unopposed.
Lefebvre resolved to advance with the main body of his forces across the Brenner to Botzen, whither another corps under Burscheidt also directed its way through the upper valley of the Inn, the Finstermunz, and Meran, while a third under Rusca came from Carinthia through the Pusterthal, and a fourth under Peyry was on the march from Verona through the vale of the Adige.
Anthony Wallner returned with his sharpshooters to the Puster valley, and advanced thence against General Rusca, who was coming up from Carinthia with his corps; he intended to defend the frontiers of his country, against him and General Baraguay d'Hilliers, who was also approaching with a strong force.
"But we can prevent General Schmidt from surrendering the fortress of Sachsenburg to General Rusca," cried Andreas, triumphantly. "Do you think Commander Joseph Turk, in Upper Carinthia, surprised and occupied the fortress of Sachsenburg immediately, because you wrote to him to do so previous to Rusca's arrival? You look at me so wonderingly, you big child? See, here is your letter to Joseph Turk!
Speckbacher alone maintained his ground, and repulsed the enemy on the 2d and 3d of November, but, being told, in a letter, by Hofer, "I announce to you that Austria has made peace with France and has forgotten the Tyrol," he gave up all further opposition, and Mayer and Kemnater, who had gallantly made head against General Rusca at the Muhlbacher Klause, followed his example.
Word Of The Day