• the

the true ones; for the writers of these documents endeavoured to persuade the world that the Austrian troops stood their ground against long and violent cannonades, against volleys of musketry, and the furious charge of the hussars, not only unflinchingly, but also without any serious losses; that they stormed entrenchments and heights crowned with artillery, displaying greatest gallantry and contempt of danger; and that their heroic achievements' cost them only a few killed and wounded. In the Caucasus, the Russian troops fight for whole days without losing, as their bulletins assert, more than eight men in any battle. The Austrian government, too, thought proper to discourage future insurrections by demonstrating how easy it is to conquer an insurgent army. Considering their immense numerical superiority their successes were by no means brilliant; but the bulletins which were published after every movement in advance represented the troops of Prince Windischgrätz as marching from victory to victory, amidst the acclamations of the liberated populace. In reality, the progress of the Imperialists was slow; they were compelled to advance with the utmost caution; the inhabitants of the country fled at their approach, destroying the provisions or concealing them in the forests of Bakonyi, or in the moors which skirt the banks of the Danube, the Theiss, and the Waag. The fatigues of the campaign, the want of food and shelter, and more than all this, the extraordinary severity of the season, combined to make this 'career of victory' most pernicious to the troops of Prince Windischgrätz.

A similar system of imposture prevailed at Pesth.* The populace had for some weeks past been amused with accounts of battles fought and victories won, with tales of the hopeless condition of the Imperialists, and the triumphant advance of the Hungarian armies. But after the battle of Moor, things came to such a pass that conceal

ment was impossible. The ous corps of the national arm partly routed and disorganizad were in full retreat upon the caps tal. The fortifications of Bu were incomplete; the fortress we untenable; and the generals wer not even able to accept a last decisive battle under the walls Pesth. The patriotism of the men is at least open to doubt, in volunteered to impose upon a ne tion which they professed to love respect.

The news of Perczel's defeat & Moor reached Pesth on the evening of the 30th of December. A coun of the Committee of Defence' w immediately held, and Mr. Kossuth proposed, and the council assente. to, the evacuation of Pestha Buda. It was resolved to remor the seat of the government, ministerial offices, and the Part ment to Debreczin, a city in th centre of the vast plains of the Theiss, and protected by its marshes and swamps. But how was that measure to be published? And how was it to obtain the sanction d the Parliament? for up to that hour even the representatives of the tion had been kept in ignorance the real state of the case. In this dilemma it fell to the lot of the Secretary at War, L. Messaros to stand the brunt of the popular fury. On the 31st of December he rose from his seat to break the evil news to the House. His first words drew upon him a storm indignation. The members inter rupted him. Cries of Shame" Turn him out!' Down with the traitor!' were heard from all parts of the House. The old soldier braved the wrath of the Assembly with great calmness. But when the furious cries of the members drowned his voice, he cast an appeal. ing look at Mr. Kossuth, who, more pale, haggard, and dejected than usual, rose to save his colleague from Count Lamberg's fate. I this instance, too, his demoniacalt! power prevailed-the tumult sub | sided; the latter part of his speech

was interrupted with loud and enthusiastic cheers; and the House assented, without a single dissentient voice, to the measures which Louis Kossuth recommended. Some members, such as the Speaker, D. Pazmandy, and Maurice Szentkiralyi, though they voted for the retreat to Debreczin, declined accompanying the government.

At

a later period a bill of outlawry ́and confiscation of their property was passed against them.

The removal of the military stores, magazines, depôts, and hospitals was a gigantic undertaking. Thousands of waggons, heavily loaded, passed through the gates of Pesth and proceeded towards the Theiss. The government offices and the archives of the Parliament were established at Debreczin, but the depôts and military factories were removed to Grosswardein. So absolute was Mr. Kossuth's dominion, so active were the officers under his command, that before the end of January, 1849, these factories were safely established, and employed in providing the Hungarian armies with sabres, gunpowder, ordnance, and other requisites for a campaign. Even before that time the Parliament resumed its consultative functions at Debreczin.

Its last act at Pesth was an act of conciliation, the credit of which is chiefly due to Count Louis Batthyanyi. With the consent and authority of the House, that nobleman, accompanied by Count Majlath, Bishop Lonovics, and Francis Deák, proceeded to the head-quarters of Prince Windischgrätz at Bia, offering the submission of the country upon certain conditions. The Imperialist leader refused to listen to their suit. Nor would he receive the Count Batthyanyi under any conditions. The rest were admitted on the understanding that they came not officially, but merely as private supplicants. His reply to them was short, characteristic, and full of fate. He would accept nothing; he would hear of nothing but an unconditional surrender:* " he scorned to treat with rebels.' The deputation returned with no

other comfort but the certainty that nothing was to be expected from the humanity of the Imperialist general, and that the transgressions of a period of doubt and confusion, one in which no country, no class, no party was free from reproach, were to be visited with unmitigated severity on the heads of the Hungarians. The Count Batthyanyi in particular received a warning which it was folly to disregard. Although the least guilty, he must have been conscious of his being the most obnoxious. The public were aware of the fact, and the Count could not have forgotten, that in his younger years, when in quarters at Venice, he had been bound by tender, though illicit ties, to the Archduchess Sophia. Those ties had been broken, and not by her. As sweet things when corrupted become most loathsome, so was the affection of early days turned into bitter animosity. Nor was this all. The Count Batthyanyi was rich and generous. Many members of the Austrian aristocracy were more extravagant and less wealthy. On many occasions his assistance had been asked, and freely granted. It was notorious that large sums had been lent by him to some of the highest persons in the country. The Duke d'Este was mentioned as indebted to him to an extent which made the repayment of the sums advanced, if not impossible, at least most inconvenient. Louis Batthyanyi must have known the weaknesses and vices of a set of men with whom for many years he had lived on terms of intimacy, if not of friendship. Nor could he mistake the intentions of a family which has never been known to forgive, and which only seems to forget. Still he made no attempt to escape. He was arrested on the 9th of January. From that day the mildest, if not the wisest, of the Hungarian chiefs was lost to a nation which more than ever needed his moderation, his moral courage, and his patriotism. He never regained his liberty.

The corps of Perezel and Görgey, still retreating before the advance

of the Imperialists, took, on the 2nd of January, a defensive position in front of Buda, in a line from Teteny to Buda Ors, and across the roads which led to Stuhlweissenburg and Bicske. Their outposts were at Hamsabeg, from whence they were ejected on the 3rd of January by the vanguard of the Ban Jellachich's corps. An attack on Teteny followed, but the Walmoden cuirassiers were defeated in their onset, and an engagement of the two armies ensued, in which the Hungarians, under General Görgey's command, remained in possession of the ground. The news of this partial success reanimated the hopes of the Council of War at Pesth. General Vetter, who commanded in that town, sent orders to Görgey, instructing him to advance upon the Imperialists, and promising the support of two corps under Perczel and Repasy.

But

Görgey, less sanguine of success, withdrew his army in the course of the night, and early on the morning of the 4th of January his battalions were encamped on the mountains, and under the very walls of Buda. On the afternoon of that day, and throughout the whole of the night, the Hungarians retreated from Buda, crossed the Danube, and proceeded by railroad to Szolnok, on the banks of the Theiss. To prevent pursuit, the rails were destroyed when the last detachment had completed their journey. On the 5th of January, the cities of Buda and Pesth were occupied by the troops of Prince Windischgrätz; the Hungarian forces, and the more conspicuous among the friends and adherents of the national cause, had left both towns, and the Magyar tricolor was supplanted by the black and yellow banner of Austria. Prince Windischgrätz believed that with Pesth the country also was conquered. The proclamation which, on the 7th of January, he addressed to the Hungarian nation, shows that in his opinion the war was terminated. Supported by a loyal and gallant army, he had put the rebel bands to flight and entered the capital. His success, he stated, was chiefly owing to the fidelity and devotion of the peasantry, which scorned the in

trigues and defeated the plans of: rebellious faction. The Empera

had instructed him to restore tra quillity and order, to establish libery and fraternity among all classes races, to promote the welfare Hungary, and to exterminate t rebels. He called upon the inhe bitants of the country to take a vantage of this last respite, and ta submit of their own free will t the legal authority of the King d Hungary. By this means alone. concluded the victorious gener shall I be enabled to intercede with his Majesty for the misguide tools of the rebellion.'

CHAPTER V.

THE proceedings of Prince Wi dischgrätz showed that he, for one did not believe in the truth of the assertions which his proclamatio of the 7th of January contained Martial law was proclaimed through out the reconquered districts, and: permanent court-martial established at Pesth. The surrender of arms was rigorously enforced in a country whose inhabitants were accustomed and indeed compelled, to arm ther selves against robber bands, and the still more dangerous razzias d wolves from the Carpathian and Styrian mountains. The least offensive demonstrations of national feeling were suppressed with rigour or punished with cruelty. The prisons of Buda and Pesth were filled with political offenders. Ol transgressions were raked up, and an unlimited scope was given to the hoarded-up vengeance of individuals The population of the country and of the towns was at the mercy of the Imperialist troops, whose greed. insolence, and brutality took no heed of rank, class, or political opinions. To resist their most extravagant demands, to resent their grossest outrages, was considered as

an

'insult offered to his Majesty's troops,' and punished accordingly. Sentences of fines, of imprisonment in heavy irons, and, worse than all, of corporal punishment, were literally showered upon the unfortunate population. The Jews, a numerous, wealthy, and consequently an influential class, were

6

among the chief objects of the Imperial commander's animadversions. He suspected them of favouring Mr. Kossuth's party. A series of vexatious decrees were published against g them generally, but chiefly against the Jews of Pesth, who were, moreover, mulcted in an enormous sum as a fine for their rebellious tendencies.' The Jews, whatever their sympathies or antipathies formerly might have been, were by this treatment compelled to espouse and support Mr. Kossuth's cause. The great master of that policy which Prince Windischgrätz represented, recommends the utmost caution and forbearance in spoliation, which, of all kinds of injustice, is most impatiently borne by the citizens of every country. Hebrews are proverbially tenacious of money. The Jews of Pesth, Raab, and Pressburg, who monopolized trade throughout Hungary, and whose influence, swift, sure, and secret, extended from the heart of Austria far beyond the Turkish frontier, proved the most zealous supporters and most serviceable allies of Mr. Kossuth. They facilitated his financial operations, carried despatches, and informed his generals of the strength, the positions, and the movements of the Imperialist

corps.

After the occupation of Pesth, the Imperialist commanders confined their operations to the siege of the fortresses of Leopoldstadt and Komorn. General Nugent, however, occupied the counties on the Mur and the Drave, thereby securing the communications of Prince Windischgrätz' army with Croatia, Styria, and Austria. The Generals Götz and Frischeisen entered the valley of the Upper Waag and the county of Turocz, while in Upper Hungary, General Schlick advanced to within nine miles of Miskolcz. The Hungarians were confined to the wide marshy plains of the Theiss and to the banks of the Maros, where the majority of their levies were concentrated under Perczel and Repasy; while measures were taken on a gigantic scale, and almost incredible results were accomplished in the creation and organization of a large popular army. General Görgey had volunteered to withdraw the atten

tion of the Imperialists from this, the most important point of the Hungarian defences. Hovering round their army, on the left bank of the Danube, and threatening their lines of communication and retreat, he was prepared to attract the bulk of their forces, and if need be, to seek refuge in Komorn or in the Carpathian mountains. Prince Windischgrätz has been severely censured for his want of energy in not proceeding at once to the head-quarters of the Hungarian insurrection. His proclamation shows that he waited at Pesth to receive the submission of the various counties. His army was, moreover, unfit to continue the campaign in winter, and amidst the desert plains and morasses of the Theiss and Maros. His bulletins stated that he had marched from victory to victory, and that he had defeated the Hungarian armies at the expense of perhaps a thousand lives. In reality, the march from the Laytha to Pesth cost him about 20,000 men in killed and wounded; his regiments were decimated by disease and want of food. On many occasions, the videttes were found frozen to death. All his soldiers wanted rest, comfort, and clothing. His stay at Pesth, however pernicious to the success of his plans, was the result of necessity rather than of choice.

Such was the state of affairs when information reached the head-quarters at Debreczin and Pesth, that at least in one part of the country the fortune of war had been in favour of the Hungarians.

Joseph Bem, a Pole, from Tarnow, in Gallicia, who received his military education under Napoleon, and who from 1815 to 1820 had served in the Russian artillery, under the Grand Duke Constantine, had, after the battle of Schwechat, solicited a command in the Hungarian army. His request was supported by his high reputation for genius, science, coolness, and courage. He was fond of war, and familiar with all its features. In 1812, he served as lieutenant of artillery in the corps of Davoust and Macdonald. He assisted in the defence of Dantzig under General Rapp. In 1815 he entered the service of Russia, and was a captain and professor of ma

thematics in 1819. He introduced the Congreve rockets into the Russian artillery. During the Polish insurrection of 1831, he fought with great distinction at Igania, Ostroczka, and Praga, where, as a general, he commanded the whole of the Polish artillery. In 1833 he went to Portugal, and entered the service of Don Pedro. But a fanatic among his countrymen discharged a pistol at him, and the fate of Don Pedro was decided before he recovered from the wound. The year 1848 found General Bem at Vienna, and the fate of that city drove him to Hungary. Old, grey-haired, of a small, spare body, and literally covered with wounds, he was nevertheless energetic, active, of an untiring perseverance, wary, full of expedients, and gifted with a miraculous contempt of danger. The explosion of a magazine at Warsaw blew him high into the air, and left him mangled, scorched, but still alive.

He bore the marks of all his battles. He was twice wounded on a barricade in Vienna. He would read his despatches, and write his answers, amidst a perfect hail-storm of bullets. A strict disciplinarian, he was as severe with others as with himself. He scandalized the Viennese, by insisting on shooting two soldiers of their garde mobile, one for violating a woman, the other for insulting an officer.

You will not leave this position,' said he, to the commander of the barricade on the Jägerzeile, until it is quite untenable, and then-even then, you must not leave it.' And to a deputation of Vienna gardes mobiles, he said, 'Will you fight or treat? If the latter, don't disturb me, for I never did treat. If you will fight, I am at your service.' And when they mentioned their hopeless condition, he replied: ‘A general has always some resource, and I am a general. I will stand by you to the last man. You speak of treason!-look at my wounds!'

Such was the man to whom Mr. Kossuth at one time thought of confiding the chief command of the Hungarian armies. But the fanaticism of the Poles, whose political

intrigues General Bem refused support, stepped in to preven an arrangement which, as subs quent events proved, would hav changed the fortunes of the va As in Portugal, so in Hungary, General Bem was wounded b a pistol shot from a Pole, whi loudly protested that the old m was a traitor. Such words tur effect in times of general doubt and confusion. Mr. Kossuth, to que the words of his biographer, Horn

had a great weakness, and a which at a later period was attended with the most fatal consequences It was his want of a just and dee appreciation of character.' He di trusted General Bem, but, overaved by the cold, determined manner the old warrior, he did not dare utter his suspicions. The Preside of the Hungarian government se General Bem on what he considered a hopeless expedition. He gave him a command, but not an army. Bem was instructed to collect whis volunteers would follow his star dard, and with them to reconquer Transylvania.

of

That province, one of the crownlands or dependencies of Hungary, is chiefly inhabited by Wallachian natives and German settlers. Both were strongly opposed to the Magyar minority, and the Wallachians especially had profited from the troubles of Hungary and the protection of the Imperialist troops, to wreak the stored-up vengeance centuries on the heads of the Mag yars, at one time the oppressors their race. The Magyar cities and villages were occupied and disarmed by the Imperial troops. When the Austrians left them, they were invaded by savage Wallach hordes, which followed in the track of the Emperor's officers. They sacked and burned the towns, villages, and manor houses, butchered the inha bitants, or tormented them to death, and did not even respect the sanc tity of the grave. Nagy-Enyed Zalathna, Abrudbanya, Körösbany, and Brád, the most flourishing towns of Magyar Transylvania, were left by them mere heaps of smoking ruins, while in their streets lay, half