pension, too fond of his 'pays' for a possibly distant appointment; but the Cross was a grand thing; it was the recompense he chose.

No wonder old Rose's eyes dwelt on him with pride and confidence that rough day, when I was watching the boats coming in. The gale freshened, and three boats were still on the horizon, the hulls being sometimes tossed high up, while sometimes the little reefed red sails were entirely lost in the trough of the waves. One got in safely, and I breathed more freely. As the next boat advanced to the wave, sea and sky seemed to lower more heavily; and at the critical moment, just before reaching Edouard, who, with the grapnel in his hand, had rushed into the sea, it turned broadside to the wave, which in a moment swept over, capsizing it, and dragging it back, only to hurl it forward again a helpless wreck, keel uppermost. One moment changed the graceful little vessel, that sat so securely on the water, into a shattered mass of dangerous fragments. The sea seemed filled with heads and arms; the men on shore rushing in to drag out those on the wreck. Three were hauled up at once, but two were under the boat in terrible peril, not six yards from the steep bank, where we on-lookers stood in safety. I was aware of the cry that rose from the shore, of the way in which the people, French in their quick expression of feeling, wept and swayed to and fro in impotent anxiety; but I could not take my eyes off the wreck, now seized by many hands, who strove to right it, while the heavy breaker again and again crushed it down upon them; and this lasted some minutes, till the boat was partially raised, and two brave agile fellows, father and son, but more like brothers, sprang on to it, and dragged out a sailor boy, jammed in the after-part, his face purple, and streaming with blood; and the next moment another man was carried out, insensible, but alive. The boy's mother rushed to him, and hugged him again and again, with a cry of rapture. The tough little fellow was not much the worse; but the other was seriously injured, and never recovered.

In due time the wreck was hauled up. 'It was the boat I used for the petite pêche; but she will never sail more,' said Edouard, touching it half tenderly. Everyone seemed effervescing and excited; he alone was quite calm, and remarking only, 'Me voilà mouillè pour la seconde fois aujourdhui,' he walked out of congratulations homewards to change his clothes.

A few days later, as we were sailing in his boat, in lovely weather, on a tranquil sea, I remarked on the constant perils of a fisherman's trade, when he replied, 'We have a saying for all that, that there are as many old fishermen as old shepherds; and it is one of the best of trades,' he added reverentially, because of the Lake of Galilee.'

Things are now much altered in that family, or even these few words, giving a slight indication of a rare and beautiful character, could hardly have been written. The following year, the bright wise old mother was carried to her rest beneath the shadow of the beautiful old church, where Duke William's men may have heard a Mass before sailing for England. I remember saying to Edouard then some common-place about such

losses being inevitable as one lives on in the world. Yes,' he answered, ' and it is that which makes this world so sad.'

It was not sad to him much longer. A few months later, in the spring of last year, came the wished-for letter, announcing that the Cross of the Légion d'honneur was about to be presented to him-too late for the joy it would once have caused.

'I am a very unhappy and tired old man,' his father said to me the other day: 'I had six sons, grands gaillards all of them, and now I have but two. It is something when there is even a cross to look at in the churchyard; but my Edouard is with his brothers-now four of my sons are in the sea.'

E. J. O.

TRADITIONS OF TIROL.

III.

NORTH TIROL-UNTERINNTHAL.

RIGHT INN-BANK.

THE ZILLERTHAL-VIEW OF TRATZBERG ACROSS THE RIVER-STRASSCORN OR COIN?-THE TWO CHURCHES OF SCHLITTERS-CASTLES OF THE ZILLERTHAL-THE PEACE OF KROPFSBERG-THE ONLY FÜGEN'THE PATRIOT RIEDL-ZELL-EXPULSION OF LUTHERANS-HIPPACHHEINZENBERG; GOLD-WASHING-MAYRHOF -GARNET MILLS-MARIÄ

RASTKAPELLE-HULDA-TRIBUTARY VALLEYS-DUXERTHAL-HINTERDUX-HARDINESS OF THE PEOPLE-THE FROZEN WALL.

'I may venture to say that among the nations of Europe, and I have more or less seen them all, I do not know any one in which there is so large a measure of real as among the Tyroleans. . . . I do not recollect to have once heard in the country an expression savouring of scepticism.'-Inglis.

NEARLY opposite Rottenburg is another castle of the family, Thurnegg by name, which was restored as a hunting-seat by Archduke Ferdinand; and at the instance of his second wife, the pious Anna Katharina of Mantua, he added a chapel, in order that his hunting-parties might always have the opportunity of hearing Mass before setting out for their sport.

Another is Tratzberg, which derived its name from its defiant character. Frederick sold it in 1470 to Christian Tänzel, a rich mining proprietor of the neighbourhood, who purchased with it the right to bear the title of Knight of Tratzberg. No expense was spared in its decoration, and its paintings and marbles made it the wonder of the country round. In 1573 it passed into the hands of the Fuggers, and at the present day belongs to Count Tannenberg, who makes it an

occasional residence. A story is told of it which is in striking contrast to that mentioned of Thurnegg. One of the knights of the castle in ancient time had a reputation for caring more for the pleasures of the chase than for the observances of religion; though he could get up at an early hour enough at the call of his Jäger's horn, the chapel bell vainly wooed him to Mass.

In vain morning by morning his guardian angel directed the sacred sound upon his ear; the knight only rolled himself up more warmly in the coverlet, and said, 'No need to stir yet, the dogs are not brought round till five o'clock.'

'Ding-dong-dang! Come-to-Mass! Ding-dong-dang!' sang

the bells.

'No, I can't,' yawned the knight, and covered his ear with the bedclothes.

The bell was silent, and the knight knew that the pious people who had to work all day hard for their living, and yet spared half an hour to ask God's blessing on their labours, were gone into the chapel.

He fancied he saw the venerable old chaplain bowing before the altar, and smiting his breast; he saw the faithful rise from their knees while the glad tidings of the Gospel were announced, and they proclaimed their faith in them in the Creed; he heard them fall on their knees again while the sacred elements were offered on the altar, the solemn words of the consecration pronounced; he saw little Johann, the farrier's son, bow his head reverently on the steps, and then sound the threefold bell which told of the most solemn moment of the sacred mysteries; and the chapel bell took up the note, and announced the joyful news to those whom illness or necessity forced to remain away.

Then hark! what was that? The rocks under the foundation of the castle rattled together, and all the stones of its massive walls chattered like the teeth of an old woman stricken with fear. The three hundred and sixty-five windows of the edifice rattled in their casements, but above them all sounded the piercing sound of the knight's cry of anguish. The affrighted people rushed into the knight's chamber; and what was their horror when, still sunk in the soft couch where he was wont to take his ease, there he lay dead, while his throat displayed the print of three black and burning claws. The lesson they drew was that the knight, having received from his guardian angel the impulse to repair his sloth by at least then rising to pay the homage which the bell enjoined, had rejected even this last good counsel, thereby filling up the measure of his faults. For years after marks were shown upon the wall as having been sprinkled by his blood.

One of the prettiest stories about Kundl is of a boy tending sheep upon the neighbouring heights, who found among some ruins a beautiful bird's-nest. What was his surprise, on examining his treasure, to find it full of broken shells the fledglings had cast off and left behind them, but shells of a wonderful kind, so solid and bright, such as he had never seen

ore.

before. Still greater was his astonishment when, on showing them at home, his parents told him they were no shells, but pieces of precious The affair caused the peasants to search in the neighbourhood, and led to the discovery of one of those veins of metal the working of which brought so great prosperity to Tirol in the fifteenth century, and which are not yet extinct. Their discovery was always by accident, and often by occasion of some curious incident, while the fact that such finds were to be hit upon acted as a strong stimulant to the imagination of a romantic and wonder-loving people, giving belief to all sorts of fables to tell how the treasure was originally deposited, and how subsequently preserved and guarded.

At Schlitters, where you first enter on the beautiful Zillerthal, they have a story of a butcher who, going to Strass to buy an ox, had scarcely crossed the Zill and got a little way from home, than he saw lying by the way-side a heap of the finest wheat. Not liking to appropriate property which might have a legitimate owner, he contented himself with putting a few grains in his pocket, and a few into his sack, as a specimen. As he went by the way his pockets and his sack began to get heavier and heavier, till it seemed as if the weigh would burst them through. Astonished at the circumstance, he put in his hand, and found them all full of shining gold. As soon as he had recovered his composure, he set off at the top of his speed, and, heeding neither hill or dale, regained the spot where he had first seen the wheat. But it was no more to be seen. If he had had faith to commend himself to God on his first surprise, say the peasants, and made the holy sign of redemption, the whole treasure would have been his.

There is another tradition at Schlitters of a more peculiar character. It is confidently affirmed that the village once boasted two churches, though but a very small one would supply the needs of the inhabitants. Hormayr has sifted the matter to the bottom, and explains it in this way. There lived in the neighbourhood two knights, one belonging to the Rottenburger, and the other to the Freundsberger family. Now the latter had a position of greater importance, but the former possessed a full share of family haughtiness, and would not yield precedence to any one. In order not to be placed on a footing of inferiority, or even of equality, with his rival, he built a second church, which he might attend without being brought into contact with him. No expense was spared, and the church was solidly built enough; but no blessing seemed to come on the edifice so built, no pains could ever keep it in repair, and at last, after crumbling into ruin, every stone of it disappeared.

There is an organized service of carriages (the road is only good for an einspanner-one-horse vehicle-and that only as far as Fügen) into the Zillerthal, at both Buxlegg and Jenbach; its natural beauties are reckoned to bear away the palm over all the valleys of North Tirol. Its greatest ornaments are the castles of Kropfsberg, Lichtwer, and Matzen; the Reiterkogel and the Gerlos mountains, forming the present boundary

against Salzburg; and the Ziller, with its rapid current which gave it its name, (from celer,) its tributary streams might very well have received the same appellation, for their celerity is often so impetuous that great damage is done to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

Kropfsberg is a fine ruin, situated a little above Strass, on a commanding height between the high-road and the Inn. It is endeared to the memory of the Tiroleans by having been the spot where, on St. Michael's Day, 1416, their favourite Friedrich mit der leeren Tasche was reconciled with his brother Ernst der Eiserne, who, after the Council of Constance had pronounced its ban on Frederick, had thought to possess himself of his dominions.

The largest town of the Zillerthal is Fügen, a short distance below Schlitters, and the people are so proud of it, that they have a saying ever in their mouths, 'There is but one Vienna and one Fügen in the world!' It doubtless owes its comparative liveliness and prosperity to its château being kept up and often inhabited by its owners. (the Countess of Dönhof and her family.) This is also a great ornament to the place, having been originally built in the fifteenth century by the lords of Fieger, though unhappily the period of its rebuilding (1733) was not one very propitious to its style. The sculpture in the church by the local artist, Nissl, is much more meritorious. The church of Ried, a little further along the valley, is adorned with several very creditable pictures by native artists. It is the native place of one of the bravest of the defenders of throne and country, so celebrated in local annals of the early part of the century, Sebastian Riedl. He was only thirty-nine at his death, in 1821. Once, on an occasion of his fulfilling a mission to General Blucher, he received from him a present of a hussar's jacket, which he wore at the battle of Katzbach, and it is still shown with pride by his compatriots.

The Zillerthal was the only part of Tirol where Lutheranism ever obtained any hold over the people. The population was very thin and scattered, consequently they were out of the way of the regular means of instruction in their own faith; and it often happened when their dwellings and lands were devastated by inundations, that they were driven to seek a livelihood by carrying gloves, bags, and other articles made of chamois leather, also of the horns of goats and cattle, into the neighbouring states of Germany. Hence they often came back imbued with the new doctrines, and bringing books with them, which may have spread them further. This went on, though without attracting much attention, till the year 1830, when they demanded permission to erect a church of their own. The Stände of Tirol were unanimous, however, to resist any infringement of the unity of belief which had so long been preserved in the country. The Emperor confirmed their decision, and gave the schismatics the option of being reconciled with the Church, or of following their opinions in other localities of the empire where Lutheran communities already existed. About four hundred chose the latter alternative, and peace was restored to the Zillerthal. Every facility was given them