remember me in holy prayers, and the landlady' (Hofer's wife) 'must not be too much distressed. I will pray to God for you all.

'Farewell, vain world; dying appears to me so easy that my eyes do not become wet. 'Written at five in the morning, and at nine o'clock I journey, with the help of . . . to God. Mandua, the 20th February, 1810. 'Make this known in Morandel.

'Thy, in life beloved,

'ANDERE HOFER, of Passeyr.

'In the Name and by the Will of the Lord, I undertake the journey with God.'

I have thought it best to translate literally, so as not to lose any of the rough simplicity of the Sandwirth's own words.

Having thus arranged his few earthly affairs, Hofer spent his remaining hours in prayer, and in converse with the priest Manfifesti, to whom he gave as a remembrance the bronze

cross which he had always worn on his breast.* To the last his thoughts were with his beloved 'Land Tyrol;' and he declared his belief that she would one day be restored to the Kaiser.

Meanwhile the winter's morning was brightening into day, and it was time for the sad procession to set out. Firmly, and as he had said, 'as easily as if it were to anything else,' the Sandwirth went out to die, but one more unlooked-for trial awaited him. At the gateway of the Porta Molina was gathered a crowd of wounded Tyrolese prisoners waiting and watching for a last sight of 'Father Hofer.' Piteously they crowded round him, clasping his hands and his knees, and kneeling to ask his blessing with tears and sobs, and the Sandwirth greeted and blessed them, asking their forgiveness if he had ever misled them and declaring again his belief in the final restoration of Tyrol. Then he passed from

The Cross is to be seen in the Museum at Innsbruck.

them on his way to the broad bastion, near the Porta Ceresa, on which a party of Grenadiers was drawn up in a square.

And now Hofer stands before the line of soldiers; a bandage is offered him to cover his eyes, but he puts it aside; he is bidden to kneel, but he says firmly :

I stand before my Creator, and standing I will render up my spirit to Him who gave it.' Then with a loud voice he cries:

'Long live the Emperor Franz;' and covering his face with his hands, he prays silently for some minutes.

Clear and loud then comes the Sandwirth's last word of command:

Take good aim-Fire!'

Six shots pierce him, but the aim has been bad, and none are fatal; he sinks to his knees, but tries to raise himself, saying:

Ah! How ill you aim.'

A corporal in mercy puts a pistol to his head, and all is over.

'He went to death as a Christian hero, and received it as a courageous martyr,' were the words of the priest who was with him to the last.

Reverently they placed the Sandwirth on a bier covered with black, and carried him to the parish church of St. Michael, where he lay peacefully resting in front of the altar while a solemn funeral service was performed; afterwards he was laid in the priest's garden, and the grave covered with a slab of marble, bearing these words:

'Here lie the remains of Andere Hofercalled General Barbone-Commander-in-chief of the militia of Tyrol, shot in this fortress, 20th February, 1810-buried in this place.'

CHAPTER XV.

CONCLUSION.

ANDREAS HOFER'S words came true. In five years' time, after the fall of Napoleon and the re-settlement of European affairs, the faithful Tyrolese were given back to their Kaiser, and the Sandwirth himself eventually rested in the soil of the land he loved.

In January, 1823, a battalion of the regiment called the Tyrolese Yägers' was quartered at Mantua, and six officers, two of them being Tyrolese, determined to carry away the coffin. So the heavy slab was raised, and Andreas, passing once more through the mountains and valleys of Tyrol, was brought to Innsbruck and reinterred with