A CONSPIRACY OF THE CARBONARI
BY
LOUISE MÜHLBACH,
Author of "Berlin and Sans Souci," "Frederick the Great and His Family,"etc., etc.
TRANSLATED BY
MARY J. SAFFORD.
F. TENNYSON NEELY,
114 Fifth Avenue, New York.
1896.
By F. Tennyson Neely
Transcriber's note: Contents added, minor typos in text corrected, and footnotes moved to end of text.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
NEELY'S PRISMATIC LIBRARY.
NEELY'S LATEST BOOKS.
A CONSPIRACY OF THE CARBONARI.
CHAPTER I.
AFTER ESSLINGEN.
It was the evening of the 22d of May, 1809, the fatal day inscribed inblood-stained letters upon the pages of history, the day which brought toNapoleon the first dimming of his star of good fortune, to Germany, andespecially to Austria, the first ray of dawn after the long and gloomynight.
After so many victories and triumphs; after the battles of Tilsit,Austerlitz, and Jena, the humiliation of all Germany, the triumphal daysof Erfurt, when the great imperial actor saw before him a whole "parterreof kings;" after a career of victory which endured ten years, Napoleon onthe 22d of May, 1809, had sustained his first defeat, lost his firstbattle. True, he had made this victory cost dearly enough. There had beentwo days of blood and carnage ere the conflict was decided, but now, at theclose of these two terrible days, the fact could no longer be denied: theAustrians, under the command of the Archduke Charles, had vanquished theFrench at Aspern, though they were led by Napoleon himself.
Terrible indeed had been those two days of the battle of Aspern orEsslingen. The infuriated foes hurled death to and fro from the mouths ofmore than four hundred cannon. The earth shook with the thunder of theirartillery, the stamping of their steeds; the air resounded with the shoutsof the combatants, who assailed each other with the fury of rage and hate,fearing not death, but defeat; scorning life if it must be owed to theconqueror's mercy, neither giving nor taking quarter, and in dying, prayingnot for their own souls, but for the defeat and humiliation of the enemy!
Never since those years of battle between France and Austria has thefighting been characterized by such animosity, such fierce fury on bothsides. Austria was struggling to avenge Austerlitz, France not to permitthe renown of that day to be darkened.
"We will conquer or die!" was the shout with which the Austrians, for the<