THE MAN OF RINN.*

Tall way from Innsbruck to Judenstein, in the commune of Rinn (unless you go thither by Hall), goes upward past Schloss Ambras, then winds along the slopes of dark-browed Gnngeser, through fragrant pine-woods and meadows brilliant with the brief flora of an Alpine summer. Judenstein neither makes much of a show on the map, nor figures largely in history. It consists of an ancient church, an old inn, and two farmhouses. But the church has a legend which all good Tyrolers devoutly believe to be true; and in the time of our grandfathers, there lived in one of the two farmhouses a peasant who helped to make history, and still lives in the hearts and memories of his countrymen. The legend, not unlike that of " Hugh of Lincoln," is about a little boy beguiled from his parents and sacrificed by cruel Jews. Wherever his blood fell on the ground, lilies grew; and the stone of sacrifice was removed to the church, or the church built over the stone. Anyhow, there it is amid a multitude of small crutches and orthoptudic instruments left there by children whose faith had made them whole. Many suffering pilgrims still limp or ride to Juden- stein, hoping to be healed, and now and then a solitary pilgrim of another sort makes his way to the farmhouse in question, where for many years dwelt Joseph Spechbacher, " the Man of Rinn," and looks into the stable where, when a price was put on his head, and the French and Bavarians were thirsting for his life, he lay hidden, literally buried alive, for nearly six weeks.

Spechbacher was a substantial peasant, born, like Andreas Hofer and Peter Mayr, in 1767. A mighty bunter from his youth upward, there was not a valley in all Tyrol which ho did not know, hardly a peak which he had not climbed. Besides possessing great physical strength and an almost superhuman power of endurance, Spechbacher was blessed with a keenness of vision which a North American Indian might have envied. He was also a man of imposing presence. A thick, black moustache drooped over his month, curly, black hair hung low on his neck and shoulders, and covered his ears. His eyes were dark, fearless, and animated, his features more Roman than Teutonic. His gala and fighting dress was the picturesque costume of the Lower Inn Valley,—loose breeches and jacket, red waistcoat, and a broad-brimmed, green felt-hat, low in the crown, bedecked with game-cock feathers, and in summer garlanded with wild flowers. If nicknames imply popularity, Spechbacher must have been well liked by his neighbours. They spoke of him indifferently as " Seppel " (Joseph), the "Judeusteiner," and "the Man of Rinn." To Hofer, whose love for him was as that of David for Jonathan, he was always either " Spoch" or " lieber Seppel," and this love was recipro- cated with a devotion of which only noble natures are capable.

Spechbacher received his " baptism of fire" at the battle of Springes in 1797, where he served as a volunteer sharpshooter. In the war of 1805 he fought under Baron Swinburne, a member of the family which an English poet of our time has rendered illustrious by his works. But the deeds which gave him renown were wrought during the "peasant war" of 1809. Between April and November of that year, Spechbacher bad as much fighting as would have surfeited a Berserker or even the Teutonic war-god himself. Besides taking a leading part in the famous fight in the Eisack Pass, he held high com- mand in the five battles of Berg Isel, and in many minor combats. After the third battle of Berg Isel (May 29th) he beleaguered Kufetein, but as his force was small, and he had no heavy siege-guns, the leaguer was little more than an inefficient blockade. Meanwhile, the battle of Wagram and the truce of Znaim enabled Napoleon to take in hand the reconquest of the rebellious province. In the second half of July it was invaded by 50,000 men under the command of Marshal Lefebvre, who marched from Salzburg with a whole army corps, while three strong columns entered the country by the Pusterthal, the Ampezzothal, and the valley of the Adige. Resistance seemed hopeless, the more espe- cially as it was one of the conditions of the armistice that the Austrian troops should withdraw from Tyrol, and even though every man capable of bearing arms bad responded to Hofer's call he could not have raised more than twenty-five thousand combatants. Moreover, the Bishop • Der Mann von Rims (Joseph Spechbacher): Kriegereirnisse in Tirol, 180P. Von Joh. Eg. Illayr. Innsbruck. of Brixen and the priesthood generally counselled sub- mission. Several of the rebel leaders fled, Spechbacher among the number. But he met Hofer on the way, who easily induced him to return and take part in another rising. Aufgebote (calls to arms) were sent out, and then Hofer, losing courage, went into his own country, and there hid himself, and if he had not left bolder spirits behind him the rebellion had ended there and then. These bolder spirits were Spechbacher, Friar Haspinger, Martin Schenk, inn- keeper, Brixen, Peter Kemnater, innkeeper, Schabs, and Peter Mayr, innkeeper, "an der Mahr." At a council held at Schenk's house, it was resolved to resist the in- vaders to the death. Messages were sent to the people

of Pusterthal, Ampezzothal, Etschthal, and the Vorarlberg, urging them to oppose the enemy step by step. Hofer, whose hiding-place was no secret to his friends, was asked to call the men of Passeir to arms ; while Spechbacher, Haspinger, and the three innkeepers raised the standard of revolt in the valleys of the Lienz and the Eisack. Their immediate object was to prevent the junction of Rouyer's division of Lefebvre's corps d'armee with the three other columns which were con- verging towards the eastern extremity of the Pusterthal, which has aptly been termed the gate of Tyrol, and is now defended by extensive fortifications.

The plan of campaign was prepared by Spechbacher, who displayed extraordinary vigour and capacity. The shooter- companies of the neighbourhood were called out, and hundreds of peasants set to work breaking-up roads, erecting barricades, and building stone batteries on the almost perpendicular heights of the Eisack Pass. Huge stones were so poised, that by slipping a rope they could be dropped into the road. Some were undermined and tamped with gunpowder, so that they could literally be shot at the enemy, and every great stone that rolled down the steep sides of the glen would carry with it innumerable smaller stones.

Meanwhile, Rouyer, who had left Innsbruck on August 1st, was marching leisurely across the Brenner. At Sterzing he heard that armed peasants had been seen further south, but as the few whom his scouts observed in the distance in- continently disappeared, the General concluded that no serious resistance would be offered. On the 4th he left Sterzing, the advance being led by the Duke of Saxe- Coburg's regiment, two thousand four hundred strong, with two guns and two squadrons of cavalry. Half a league beyond Mauls fire was opened, whereupon the Tyrolers retreated and the advances continued until the head of the column reached the straitest part of the pass near Oberlin, when a stentorian voice shouted : " In the name of the Holy Trinity, let go ! " and a vast avalanche of stones thundered from the heights, leaving havoc in their wake. The road was strewn with dead and dying men and horses. For a few moments the firing ceased on both sides, only, however, to be renewed with greater determination than before. It was a heroic fight, full of moving incidents and dramatic episodes, marked, how- ever, by a proceeding on the part of the French equally impolitic and cruel. Four peasants, one of them badly wounded, who had been taken prisoners, were shot in sight of their comrades. But this cruel deed, instead of dismaying the Tyrolers, only stirred them to greater efforts, and in the result Rouyer had to retreat to Sterzing with a loss in killed and wounded of fifty-three officers and twelve hundred men. But in order to keep the way open for a second advance, he left the Saxons at Oberau with orders to hold the position until the following morning, when he would return with reinforcements and food, of which they stood sorely in need. In this, however, he failed, and though a part of the regiment succeeded in getting away with sadly diminished numbers, two battalions were taken prisoners, thereby increasing Rouyer's losses to nearly two thousand men. When Marshal Lefebvre heard what had happened he sent the first Bavarian division over the Brenner, himself following shortly afterwards with the main body of his command, and joining Rouyer at Sterzing. On August 7th he marched with his entire force, some 25,000 men, down the valley, where he met with as warm a reception as had been accorded to his predecessors, only he did not get so far as they had done, for the whole country-side was up in arms. Hofer had arrived with the men of Passeir ; Peter Mayr and Haspinger brought up contingents from Brixen, and other reinforcements were

coming from far and near. The French could neither manceuvre nor deploy. Crowded in the narrow defile they were shot down by unseen foes whose rifles carried three times as far as their smooth-bores. The road was broken up and barricaded, they were impeded at every step, avalanches of etones were let loose on them, and in the end Lefebvre, like Rouyer, was forced back to Sterzing. On the n-ght of the 10th he continued his retreat to Innsbruck, followed by Hofer and Spechbacher, whose force by this time may have amounted to 16,000 men. From Matrei onward the retreat became a rout. The woods and rocks on either side of the road were lined with sharpshooters, who kept up an incessant fire, and the French and Bavarian soldiers were so overcome by the heat and their long march, that the riders of the rear guard had to urge them forward with their sabres.

At Innsbruck Lefebvre made a stand, and on August 13th was fought the fourth battle of Berg Isel, the most hotly contested of the series. As on previous occasions, Sped'.

bacher commanded the right wing, and by a well conceived flank movement, at the close of the day decided the issue.

For though the rebels did not enter Innsbruck until the following day, they had rendered it untenable, and Lefebvre had no alternative but to clear out of the country with what speed he might. In ten days he had lost in killed, wounded,

and prisoners, fully fifteen thousand men, the peasants were threatening his communications in every direction, General

Ruska had been defeated in the Pusterthal and General Castella in the Ampezzothal. To stay longer were to court destruction, so on the 14th he threw his cannons into the river and retreated into Bavaria.

It was a surprising victory, won, moreover, with com- paratively slight loss to the victors—at Berg Isel the total of their killed and wounded did not reach two hundred, whereas the French lost two thousand—so surprising, indeed, as to be almost incredible. But it must be remembered that then, as now, the Tyrolers were fine marksmen, that their rifles killed at three hundred paces, and that they fought for the most part under cover, stalking their foes as they had been used to stalk deer and bears.

But the victory, great as it was, only put off the evil day. Napoleon could no more let a little mountain-folk set him at defiance than the mountaineers could withstand the conqueror who had laid low so many mightier than they. Two months Andreas Hofer ruled at Innsbruck as Ober-Commandant of Tyrol. Then came the end. A treaty of peace was signed at Vienna, in which no mention was made of Tyrol. Armies gathered round the devoted land, the passes, weakly de- fended, were forced, for the peasants who depended on their labour for their livelihood, could not be always under arms, and though some of them responded to Hofer's call, their enthusiasm had waned, the old ardour was gone. Kaiser Franz, at whose bidding they rose, had left them in the lurch ; and few were so ignorant as not to know that, without help from Austria, success was past praying for. On October 16th, Spechbacher, who had been guarding the frontier near Melek, in the Salachthal, was assailed by superior numbers, and after a desperate hand-to-hand contest, in which he received several wounds, escaped by climbing a rocky height, inaccessible to anybody less agile than himself, Four days later Hofer left Innsbruck, and on November 1st was fought the fifth and last battle of Berg Isel—and lost, for the peasants fought with little heart, and dispersed im- mediately after the engagement. Meanwhile, Hofer had received from the Viceroy of Italy an official notification of the signing of the Treaty of Vienna, and from the Archduke John a letter advising him to abandon a contest which had now become hopeless. A few days afterwards, the Ober- Commandant executed a formal act of submission, and a proclamation was issued threatening with death all who were found in arms after November 12th. On this Hofer, who showed great weakness, and allowed himself to be influenced by fanatical counsellers, retracted his submission and sent out a fresh Aufgebot. But it was of no use. Not many answered to the call; the new rising was quenched in blood, its leaders threatened with death, and a price put on their heads. Spechbacher, who had joined the movement out of loyalty to his chief and against his better judgment., became a fugitive, hiding sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, yet never going far from Judenstein, often in great peril, and as often escaping by

good luck or sheer audacity. When the deepening winter rendered " lying out " and sleeping in church steeples impos- sible he betook himself to a cave in the recesses of the Gangeser, which he bad discovered while chamois-hunting. and whither he had despatched his faithful servant, George Zeppel, with food, gunpowder, and rifles. Of these he had ten, one of which he fixed with wires in such fashion that nobody could enter the cave while be slept, without giving an alarm. Here he lived unmolested, until one unlucky day, when ven- turing forth for a walk, he was caught by an avalanche, carried half a league down the mountain, and there left with a dislocated hip. A weaker or less resolute man would have stayed where he was until help came, but as the help might appear in the questionable shape of a French or Bavarian soldier, Spechbacher dragged himself, under cover of darkness, to a village seven miles away, and knocked at a friend's door. The friend took him in, at the risk of his life, all who har- boured proclaimed fugitives being menaced with military execution; and after the village bone-setter had reduced the dislocation, they carried the wounded man to his own place and left him in the cowhonse. Here Zeppel found him, and at his own suggestion, or Spechbacher'a, dug a hole, 3 ft. deep, under a manger, and having laid him therein, covered him up with straw and litter. At this very time soldiers were quartered in the house hard by, and more than once went into the cowhouse to search for arms. How any human being could exist in such a place for six weeks passes comprehension. As it is now, so doubtless it was then,—a close, foul-smelling Alpine stable. Six minutes of that noisome air was more than enough for the present writer, when he visited Jadenatein a little while ago.

For an account of Spechbacher'a farther adventures, we must refer the reader to The Man of Rinn. But as it is a rare book, we may jest mention here that, after leaving his hiding- place, he put ten pounds of meat in his knapsack and a brace of pistols in his belt, and walked by devious ways to Vienna, which he reached at the end of May (1810). When war broke out again in 1813, Spechbacher was made a Major in the Aus- trian service; when the war was over, he retired with a pen- sion of £2 a week, which, in addition to his military rank and a gold medal, was all the reward he got for his devotion to Kaiser and Fatherland. Spechbacher died at Hall in 1820, his life, as the doctors testified, being materially shortened by the wounds he received and the hardships he endured in the rising of 1809.