LV. 1849. sixteen thousand men when they reached Waitzen. Al- CHAP. ready, too, the seeds of divisions between him and Kossuth had become prolific of evil: the dispositions of the latter were entirely democratic, whereas Georgey was decidedly monarchical; and he had recently published a proclamation to the effect that his army "would obey no orders but those prescribed by law through the responsible royal minister-at-war, and would oppose itself to all those who may attempt, by republican intrigues in the interior of the country, to overthrow the constitutional monarchy." Kossuth's instructions were "to act on the offensive against the corps of Marshal Simonich, and relieve the fort of Leopoldstadt, blockaded by him, in order by this diversion to withdraw the main hostile forces from the Theiss, and render possible the organisation of new troops behind that river." But when he left Waitzen, Georgey found that his forces were not adequate to both these objects, and therefore he wisely renounced all thoughts of relieving Leopoldstadt; and abandoning that fortress to its fate, he resolved to retreat sideways," as he himself says, "into the district of the mountain towns." By this district was meant the tract of land in the valley of the river Gran, which flows in a south-westerly direction from the lower spurs of the Carpathian range into the great valley of the Danube. This route had the double advantage of leading the enemy into the rocky and inhospitable region of the mountains, and of affording the Hungarian corps the means of uniting with the reorganised and recruited army which was 49, 50. collecting behind the Theiss.1 1 Georgey, Klapka, i. i. 269, 274; 81; Balleyd. 11. difficulties But the difficulties of the march at this rigorous season were immense, and such as would have deterred any less Extreme energetic general and army from attempting it; for the of his march troops had to force their way through roads covered with to Kaschau. ice, and to cut through deep wreaths of snow in narrow valleys overhung by precipices on either side, down which avalanches were falling. The passes in the mountains СНАР. LV. 1849. were occupied by Austrian detachments, under General Schlick, who had come down with five thousand men from Gallicia to oppose Georgey's progress, and they made a stout resistance. Georgey, on one occasion, took five guns and two hundred prisoners. He says, in a bitter spirit, that no one could have believed, seeing how badly his troops. fought, that a Russian intervention could ever become necessary. To add to their difficulties, the frost, which had been so severe, suddenly broke up on the 20th January, and was succeeded by a thaw which produced such floods as rendered it almost a matter of impossibility to stem them in the narrow and steep valleys up which the Hungarians were toiling their arduous way. On one occasion Count Guyon's corps met so formidable a débacle that the troops recoiled before it, and were only turned, and in a manner forced through, up to their middles in floating ice, by the still more formidable cry in their rear, "The enemy are coming!" Georgey, after surmounting with heroic constancy incredible difficulties, at length forced the barriers at the summit of the mountain ridge, and descended by Iglo down the valleys, the waters of which floated into the Theiss. He there encountered General Schlick, who had come down from Epirus, and had for some weeks been labouring to put Kaschau into a respectable state of defence. After several bloody combats, in which the élite of the regular Hungarian troops were brought into action, he at length succeeded in forcing back the Imperialists, who retired towards Epirus. Weary, dejected, and destitute of everyGeorge thing, the troops, more like a crowd of beggars than a milKlapka, i. itary array, at length reached Kaschau, where he effected troduction; a junction with the corps under the command of Colonel Klapka, which raised his forces to about twenty-one thousand men,1 i. 169, 221; 81, 83, In Balleyd. i. 59, 61. While Georgey was thus with consummate skill forcing his way through the defiles of the Carpathian mountains, and drawing the attention of such numerous bodies LV. 1849. 12. Kossuth Govern ment to re army be Theiss. of Windischgratz's army upon his track, as rendered CHAP. any advance against the main body of the army which had retired behind the Theiss impossible, Kossuth and the other members of the Government who had reached Efforts of Debreczin were equally energetic in the exercise of their and the great talents to reorganise and recruit the dejected and disorganised force, which, encumbered with sick organise the women and children, had contrived to escape behind hind the the barrier of that river. The measures of Kossuth at this critical moment were as skilful as his conduct and language were energetic. He made full use of the unlimited issue of paper money which the decree of the Diet had put at his disposal, and which, as it passed current at full value in every part of Hungary, put ample funds for the prosecution of the war at his disposal. By a skilful device he declared Austrian paper not a current medium of exchange in Hungary, while at the same time he offered, on the part of the Government, to take it for full value in exchange for Hungarian paper. Large quantities of Vienna notes in consequence came into the public treasury, and gave the minister the means of purchasing arms and ammunition in sufficient quantities in England and Belgium. Artillery in abundance was at their disposal in the different fortresses in their hands, and all the foundries and manufactories of powder and arms in the kingdom were in activity to furnish more. Meanwhile proclamations of the most headstrong kind were addressed in profusion by the Government to the people. They appealed to their national feelings, their love of independence, their ancient glories, their martial fame; the name of the King was freely used to secure the loyal-the ambition. of democracy appealed to to win the republican. Every success, however trifling, was magnified by Kossuth into an important victory; every tradition, how old soever, referred to as an incitement to fresh exertions. Immense was the success of these persevering efforts in 1 LV. 1849. CHAP. drawing forth the military strength of the ancient and warlike Hungarian nation. Armed bands sprung up, as if by magic, from their mother earth; old arms, which had hung undisturbed for centuries since the Turkish wars, were taken down and furbished up; and the spectacle was exhibited of an entire nation taking up arms to combat, as they thought, for their King, their freedom, and their independence.1 Balleyd. 6, 9. 13. Arrest and execution of Count While these active measures were in progress for the future prosecution of the war, a mournful tragedy was passing at Pesth under the orders of Prince Windischgratz. Bathiany. By a strange infatuation Count Bathiany, instead of retiring with the Diet to Debreczin, and disregarding a positive injunction not to appear by Prince Windischgratz, presented himself before the Imperial general. He was immediately arrested, for the Government were extremely incensed at him as the first leader and supposed author of the insurrection. He was handed over, after some weeks, to a court-martial, by which he was condemned to death, and next day executed. He was apprehensive of being sentenced to be hanged, and uttered a cry of joy when he heard he was to be shot. Like so many other leaders on both sides in this melancholy war, he died with heroic courage. History must ever mourn the death on the scaffold of any man of noble character combating for what in sincerity he believed to be the cause of duty; and it will be a blessed time when more humane maxims obtain in civil, as it is the glory of modern civilisation to have effected in national conflicts. But, in vindication of the Austrian Government, it must be recollected they were only retaliating upon their enemies what they had suffered at their hands. The Hungarians began by murdering Count Lamberg; they had judicially massacred Count Zichy; and they had advanced to the relief of Vienna when its insurgents were reeking with the blood of Count Latour.2 When in their turn defeated, they could not complain if they underwent the Feb. 3. 2 Balleyd. 34, 35; Georgey, i. 172, 174. severe but just law of an eye for an eye, and a tooth for CHAP. a tooth. LV. 1849. 14. of Win From the beginning of January, when he arrived in Pesth, to the 20th February, Windischgratz remained Inactivity stationary in that capital. This delay is usually con- dischgratz sidered as a serious fault in a military point of view, and at Pesth. as the main cause of the disasters which afterwards befell the Imperial arms. But before concurrence is expressed in this disapprobation, it is to be recollected with how small a force, comparatively speaking, he was intrusted, considering the arduous task which lay before him of invading a martial nation in arms. The sixty thousand men with whom he started from Vienna in the middle of December had melted away under the hardships of a winter campaign, in a marshy and unhealthy country, to less than forty thousand effective men when he reached Pesth; and with these he not only had to garrison that capital and its citadel Buda, but to detach largely to the right for the siege of Esseck and to keep up the communication with Croatia, and on the left, towards Waitzen, to support Simonich in the siege of Leopoldstadt, and pursue Georgey in the Carpathian defiles. In these circum stances, to have advanced with the centre towards Debreczin through a difficult and marshy country in the depth of winter, would have been an extremely hazardous operation, which might have caused, earlier than they actually occurred, the disasters which ensued. And if it be said the weather and the bad roads were as severe upon the Hungarians in retreat as on the Austrians in advance, the answer is that that is no doubt true; but the former were every day drawing nearer to their resources and getting reinforcements from the rear, while the Austrians were moving farther from theirs, and becoming more weakened by being obliged to leave detachments to keep up communications. At length, Buda having been put in a proper state of defence, and garrisoned by two battalions, and Esseck VOL. VIII. 2 x |