[Illustration: THE LAST DAY OF ANDREAS HOFER.]
His captors treated him with brutal violence. They tore out his beard,
and dragged him pinioned, barefoot, and in his night-dress, over ice and
snow to the valley. Here he was placed in a carriage and carried to the
fortress of Mantua, in Italy. Napoleon, on news of the capture being
brought to him at Paris, sent orders to shoot him within twenty-four
hours.
He died as bravely as he had lived. When placed before the firing-party
of twelve riflemen, he refused either to kneel or to allow himself to be
blindfolded. "I stand before my Creator," he exclaimed, in firm tones,
"and standing will I restore to him the spirit he gave."
He gave the signal to fire, but the men, moved by the scene, missed
their aim. The first fire brought him to his knees, the second stretched
him on the ground, where a corporal terminated the cruel scene by
shooting him through the head. He died February 20, 1810. At a later
date his remains were borne back to his native alps, a handsome monument
of white marble was erected to his memory in the church at Innsbruck,
and his family was ennobled.
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