"What a market," exclaims a writer, warming with his subject, "the city must then have had!--what cooks!--what convoys of sleek mules laden with luxuries!--and how, in their distant and regretted residences, all the old housekeepers of those perplexed and provoked absentees must have busied themselves in the preparation of savouries, and potted meats, dried fruits, and delicate conserves, and in the regular and never-failing despatch of supplies from the well-stored cellars."
Trent is now said to be as dissolute a little capital as any in Europe. The simplicity of ancient manners, if it ever did exist there, is no longer to be found. Even the characteristic honesty of the Tyrolese has disappeared, and extortion and cheatery are of common occurrence.
This was not the locality Hofer would willingly choose for his _landsturm_. Fortunately, they were not long exposed to its influence. On the 24th, General Chastelar advanced towards Trent, while Hofer took possession of the ground between Trent and Roveredo. On the same day, Chastelar, after his fatiguing march, was drawn into action by Baraguay d'Hilliers, who, with a superior force, was victorious, but reaped no advantage from it. He had already abandoned Trent, and he now, immediately after the battle, forsook Roveredo, and quitted the country entirely.
Chastelar had scarcely taken up his quarters in Roveredo, when he heard of the Austrians' reverses in Germany and Italy. The north of the Tyrol was now left deserted, at the mercy of the enemy; and he resolved immediately to return to it; invited thereto by a note written by the Archduke John in pencil on his knee, from the battle-field.
"Do not let our misfortunes make you uneasy. We have done our duty, and will defend the Tyrol to the last drop of our blood.
The rifles were soon in full action again. In the course of a few days not a single town in the Tyrol remained in the occupation of the French but Kufstein.
Then came a reverse. The Austrians under Chastelar were defeated at Worgl. This was on the 13th of May; and six days afterwards the Bavarians burned Schwatz; while the flames of seventeen other towns and villages made the heavens appear a vast sea of fire.
In a certain mountain-pass several men were vigorously felling down enormous larch-trees, evidently for purposes of warfare, under the direction of Father Joachim, who was zealously instructing them where to place the trees with most effect; how to intermix them with huge masses of rock, filling up the interstices with earth and brushwood; and how to secure the whole mass from toppling over till the right moment, by means of cords and chains. In the midst of this exciting work a little boy came trotting up to the good Capuchin.