Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady, with a Historical Intr. by F. Pulszky (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. ADVANCE OP W1NDISCHGRATZ. Kossuth returned to Pest in the middle of November. At this time the position of Hungary was not enviable. Field-Marshal Prince Win- dischgratz encamped around Vienna with 75,000 men, and threatened at once Pressburg and Oedenburg. Everybody was aware, that as soon as the Field-Marshal had satisfied his vengeance by the executions in Vienna, his cannon wouldbe pointed against Hungary. On the Moravian frontier, Simonich stood with 12,000 men; on the Windischgratz was not so blood-thirsty as he often has been represented. He was a man of cold haughtiness, who on principle commanded those executions, which, after the conquest of Vienna, horrified civilized Europe, long unaccustomed to such scenes. His sentences did not aim at individuals, but at the classes to which they belonged. The first necessity according to his views was, to have a German representative shot, hereby to express his contempt for the Parliament of Frankfort, and to render the breach between the ideal German unity and the Austrian Empire irreparable. Frobel, who was chief of all the democratical Austrian clubs in Germany, was likewise in his hands; but by the newspapers the name of Blum had become more familiar to the Prince. He executed Blum, and dismissed the other representatives. Next, a Polish victim was deemed indispensable; Bem had fled: in his stead his aide-de-camp, Jelovizki, was doomed to death. Thirdly, some officers of the National Guards were destined to fall. Baron Sternau was shot; one was thought sufficient. With the same logic, one editor of newspapers was deemed sufficient to terrify this dangerous people; to poor Doctor Becher this fate was allotted. The Jews were defamed as radicals: Doctor Jellinek, the young enthusiastic disciple of Hegel, ex...