WITH THE RED EAGLE.
[To THE EDITOR 01 THE " 81•110TATOH."]
,Srs.,—Tn your appreciative notice of my "tale of Tyrol," in the Spectator of February 27th, you say it may be objected that my hero, " Captain Maynard, bears too obviously a - charmed life, and exception may be taken to the author's practice of employing modern English slang." On these two points I shall feel greatly obliged if you will allow me to make one or two observations. Captain Maynard is of course an imaginary character, but the Bauernkrief of 1809 was so extraordinary, so full of "moving incidents and disastrous chances," that, taking into account the circumstances, I do not think his adventures are either incredible or improbable.
'His experiences were less extraordinary than the experiences of Haspinger and Spechbacher, and some other leaders of less note. Though always in the forefront of the battle, and fighting almost incessantly for eight months against desperate odds, Haspinger was never wounded, and Spechbacher never disabled ; and when the end came, and they were hunted like beasts, both, by sheer audacity and good luck, got away with whole skins. Straub, the Kronenwirth of Hall, escaped from Lefebvre's custody exactly as I have described Maynard escaping,—by vaulting over the pole of a carriage, running the gauntlet of a line of sentries, and leaping from the Inn Bridge into the river.
As for the slang, it is not always easy to ascertain whether a. slang word or phrase is a revival, a survival, or a new coinage. and I have freely taken such as suited my purpose. MorecAr, 1809 is surely not so remote as to be antiquated. I have talked with sailors who served at Trafalgar and soldiers who fought at Leipsic and Waterloo. Herr von Atthuayr, to whom I have inscribed " With the Red Eagle," is the grandson of Philip von Woerndle, who led a contingent of Tyrolers against the French in 1796, and I have the pleasure of knowing a great-nephew of Peter Mayr, shot by the 'French at Botzen in 1810, who died rather than tell a lie, and whose answer to the crucial question, "Mein Leben mit einer Liige will ich mich nicht retten," has made his memory ever green in Tyroler hearts.—I am, Sir, 8cc.,
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