United States or Papua New Guinea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"They count upon the assistance of Austria," replied Colonel Dittfurt; "and General von Chasteler is said to have promised the peasants that he will invade the Tyrol one of these days." "It is a miserable lie!" cried the general, with a disdainful smile.
Then they rushed again into the street, toward the principal guard-house, where an obstinate struggle was going on. There, at the head of his regiment, stood Colonel Dittfurt, firmly determined to die rather than surrender to the peasants.
"No one, sir," said the Tyrolese, on whom the dying officer fixed his eyes. "We had no leader; we fought equally for God, the emperor, and our native country." "No, no," said Dittfurt, "that is false; I know better, for I saw the leader of the peasants pass me often.
Livid as a corpse, his face covered with gore, his uniform saturated with blood, Dittfurt reeled forward, and drove his soldiers, with wild imprecations, entreaties, and threats toward the hospital, whence the Tyrolese poured their murderous fire into the ranks of the Bavarians. But scarcely had he advanced a few steps when a fourth bullet struck him and laid him prostrate.
Colonel Dittfurt, who, during the winter of 1809, acted with extreme inhumanity in the Fleimserthal, where the conscription had excited great opposition, and who publicly boasted that with his regiment alone he would keep the whole of the beggarly mountaineers in subjection, drew upon himself the greatest share of the popular animosity.
Colonel Dittfurt went to the desk and commenced writing the dispatch. "Miserable peasants!" he murmured, on handing the dispatch to the general; "it is already a humiliation that we must devote attention to them and occupy ourselves with them."
Colonel Dittfurt lay on his couch with his eyes distended to their utmost, and stared at the Tyrolese assembled round him. For some minutes the curses and invectives had died away on his lips, and he seemed to listen attentively to the sinister notes of the alarm- bells which were calling incessantly upon the Tyrolese to prepare for the struggle. "Is that my death-knell?" he asked wearily.
"Colonel Dittfurt," cried General Kinkel, in a doleful voice, "you see that further resistance is useless. We must surrender!" "No!" shouted the colonel, pale with rage; "no, we shall not surrender; no, we shall not Incur the disgrace of laying down our arms before this ragged mob. We can die, but shall not surrender! Forward, my brave soldiers, forward!"
On the 12th, he appeared before Innsbruck. Kinkel was astounded at the audacity of the peasants, whom Dittfurt glowed with impatience to punish. But the people, shouting "Vivat Franzl!
Dittfurt, the Bavarian leader, who scornfully refused to yield to the peasant dogs, as he considered them, fought with tiger-like ferocity, and fell at length, pierced by four bullets. One further act completed the freeing of the Tyrol from Bavarian domination. The troops under Colonel Wrede had, as we have related, crossed the Brenner on a temporary bridge, and escaped the perils of the pass.
Word Of The Day