"may God and the Holy Virgin grant that no harm result, from your
visit to me! You know that I have never ceased to love you, and that
when, in the year 1805,I had to bid farewell to Andreas Hofer and
the dear Tyrol, my heart almost broke with grief and despair."

"Look, look!" exclaimed Andreas Hofer, turning with a radiant smile
to his two friends; "he is indeed the same man who bade us farewell
at that time in Brunecken, and was not ashamed of embracing Andreas
Hofer and shedding tears on his shoulder for the poor sacrificed
Tyrol."

"And who is glad to-day to be able to embrace Andreas Hofer again,"
said the archduke, encircling the Herculean form of the Tyrolese
innkeeper with his arms. "But I will shed no tears to-day, Andreas,
for I hope the time of tears is over, and you have come to tell me
so, to bring me love-greetings from the Tyrolese, and the hope of
better times. Say, you three brave men from the Tyrol, Andreas
Hofer, Joseph Speckbacher, Anthony Wallner, is it not so? Have you
not come to tell me that the Tyrol is longing for her emperor and
desirous of getting rid of the Bavarians?"

"Yes, we have come to say this to our dear John," exclaimed Andreas
Hofer.

"We have come to ask if Austria does not intend to call upon her
Tyrol to rise and fight under her banners," said Joseph Speckbacher.

"We have come to ask our Archduke John if he will help us with his
troops and cannon in case we Tyrolese should rise now to expel the
Bavarians from the country," said Anthony Wallner, with flashing