declared he had no personal feeling. He would
gladly have reasoned with Napoleon, he further said, if he could but
have gained an interview; if unsuccessful in his plan, he would have
thought it a deed of honor to smite down the world's oppressor. The
would-be assassin was secretly shot, and the police had instructions
to say, if there should be much talk, that he was crazy. This event
seemed deeply to impress the intended victim with the intensity of
feeling among the common people of Germany, and he was anxious to be
gone. His fears were well founded; assassination was in the minds of
many unbalanced men. A captain in the Austrian army actually sought a
furlough, giving as his reason that he desired to kill Napoleon.

This mania for assassination completed the depression of spirits which
for some time past had been noticeable in the French emperor. Severely
wounded in the great toe at Ratisbon, he had there been compelled to
exercise enormous self-control to prevent a panic in the army. Knocked
senseless by a fall from his horse on the road to Schoenbrunn, he had
for the same reason been forced to enjoin silence on nearly two
hundred persons who were aware of the fact. At Essling he had thought
it necessary to throw himself into the bullet hail to sustain the
morale of his troops, and having saved Lannes from drowning during a
preliminary reconnaissance of the Danube banks, he had finally lost
him under the most distressing circumstances. To cap the climax of
these experiences, it now seemed as if his own life were in constant
jeopardy. When, therefore, the official articles of the peace were
drawn up on the fourteenth, and Liechtenstein departed to lay them
before Francis, the French cannon did not wait for formalities, but
proclaimed the peace as already made. The next night Napoleon was on
his way to Paris.

The armistice of Znaim had utterly crushed the hopes of the Tyrolese,
but they continued to fight in despair. The peace of Schoenbrunn set
free the entire French army to overwhelm them. A second double
invasion was organized. Prince Eugene offered amnesty to the
insurgents, and the Austrian ministry advised them to cease
resistance. But Hofer had by this time convinced himself that his
mission was more than earthly. After some hesitation, he refused to
accept Austria's advice, and the conflict was renewed. The Tyrolese
were now alone, and after a vain resistance the combatants dispersed
among the mountains. T