LV. 1849. CHAP. given in Georgey's own words: "Count Rudiger seemed filled with the sole desire of alleviating as much as possible the depression of my present situation for his first words contained a frank assurance that he fully appreciated the motives which had induced me to abandon the prosecution of the war, and in confirmation of this, he offered me his right hand. An involuntary but audible exclamation from my companions betrayed how agreeably they were surprised by this proof of esteem from the victor to the more unfortunate leader of the vanquished. I then delivered to Count Rudiger, together with a list of our requests, the names also of those members of the Provisional Government, and of the Diet, who had voluntarily attached themselves to the army, and who requested me to obtain, if possible, the permission to remain with the army during its captivity, till the fate of such had been determined on. To this Count Rudiger at once ii. 427, 429. agreed, and consented that the general officers should retain their arms." 1 1 Georgey, 82. ceremony occurred. 140 guns. The mournful ceremony of surrendering their arms took Mournful place with great pomp, and all the courtesy towards the which then Vanquished due to their glorious achievements and present reverses. Georgey's men were still 28,000 strong, with At four in the afternoon, having all come up, they were arranged in two lines, the infantry in front, with the cavalry on the wings: the artillery and caissons in the second. Right before them, in the great plain of Vilagos, stood the Russian army also in two lines, and the finest order. "With such men," said Georgey, on seeing them, "you might conquer the world." At a quarter past four, Georgey and his generals rode forward to the front between the two armies; Rudiger, similarly accompanied, advanced to meet him. Both generals saluted, and a long rolling of drums was heard along the whole line, and the Russians presented arms, while the Hungarians laid down theirs: the infantry placing them on the ground two yards in front of the LV. 1849. line, the cavalry on the saddles of their horses. Georgey CHAP. and all his officers retained their swords. At a second rolling of drums the ranks were broken, and the men and guns conducted with their arms to the place of their destination, under strong escorts. Most of the weapons were found to be of English manufacture. "In the twilight of the same evening," says Georgey, "General Count Rudiger, the commander of a Russian army corps, inspected the troops under my command. But the cavalry were dismounted, and their swords hung on the pommels of their saddles; the muskets of the infantry were piled in pyramids; the artillery were drawn close ii. 429, 430; together, and unmanned; the flags and the standards 319, 351. lay there unprotected before the disarmed ranks." 1 1 Georgey, Balleyd., of the re fortresses, ation of the war. Georgey was conducted with his generals, after this 83. melancholy scene, to Gros- Wardein, from whence he ad- Surrender dressed orders to the other generals to follow his example, maining and to the governors of the fortresses of Arad, Peterwara- corps and dein, and Komorn, to surrender them at discretion. The and terminfew army corps yet in the field surrendered or dispersed, the officers, especially of Polish origin, for the most part taking refuge with Bem, Dembinski, and the members of the Government and Diet who had not surrendered with Georgey, in the adjoining provinces of Turkey, where they were hospitably received, and became ere long the cause of a difference between the governments of Great Britain and Russia. The governors of Arad and Peterwaradein surrendered their fortresses, agreeably to Georgey's orders, on the 17th August. Vicszey's corps, still 7500 strong, Aug. 17. with 1100 cavalry, surrendered at discretion to General Rudiger, with 72 guns; 5000 of Dembinski's men, hotly pursued by Simbschen, surrendered at Karanicher, with Aug. 19. 19 guns. Klapka was the last to obey this order; he held the fortress of Komorn with his powerful garrison till the beginning of October, when seeing the contest was at an end, and having learned that Arad and Peterwara- Oct. 4. dein had surrendered, he, with a heavy heart, capitulated CHAP. LV. 1849. * on honourable terms, carrying with him the distinction of being the last who maintained the Independence of Hungary. The soldiers of the garrison were offered rank in the Austrian army corresponding to what they had held in their own; but not a man accepted the offer. An 90, 95; Tol- old sergeant of hussars said, "General, we have faithfully served our country; we will support it again if need be, but never, never, will we go to the Austrians." 1 1 Klapka, ii. stoy, 176, 177. 84. Paske witch intervenes in vain in behalf of the leaders. Paskewitch and his generals behaved with the generosity which brave men owe to each other, towards the Hungarian officers who had fallen into their hands. The former wrote a noble letter to the Emperor of Austria, Hungarian seconding that of Georgey, and imploring him to extend his clemency to all the officers and soldiers who had been engaged in the insurrection. But the Emperor returned a cold answer, to the effect that, if he consulted only the dictates of his own heart, he would be too happy to accede to his request, but that "he had sacred duties to perform towards his other subjects, which, as well as the general good of his people, he was obliged to consider." These words were of ominous import; they froze every heart with horror. In effect, the Austrian Empire had gone through so terrible a crisis, it had so nearly been destroyed in the convulsion, and was so much humiliated by having been saved only by the intervention of Russia, that the feelings of the victorious sections of the com * Georgey, on this occasion, wrote to Klapka,-"Dear friend: Since we have parted, events, not unexpected, but decisive, have occurred. The eternal disunion of the Provisional Government, and the vulgar jealousy of some of its members, have brought matters to the point which I have foreseen since April last. When I passed the Theiss at Tokay, and gained brilliant advantages over the Russians, the Government expressed a desire to make me commander-in-chief. Kossuth, in secret, named Bem: but the nation looked for my appointment, for Kossuth had given a perfidious answer to the Diet. Much deceit has been the cause of all our subsequent evils. Dembinski was beat at Szorey: Bem routed at Maros. Valashely fled under the walls of Temesvar, where Dembinski had also retired. He gained successes for a few hours; but at length was beaten to such a degree that, as Vicszey wrote to me, there remained only 6000 round their standards out of 50,000."-GEORGEY to KLAPKA, August 14, 1849. BALLEYDIER, 353, 354. LV. 1849. munity earnestly called for expiatory victims. Public CHAP. opinion in England loudly condemned the melancholy executions which followed, but although all must regret 1 Paskethat the Austrian Government lost the opportunity of witch to Emperor of doing a noble deed, yet justice must recollect the circum- Austria, stances under which these severities were exercised. And Aug. 13; if we would know what they were, we have only to ask reply, Aug. ourselves what our feelings would have been if Smith leydier; O'Brien had led his Irish repealers in triumph to Brent- 437, 442; ford, and we had escaped destruction only by invoking 101, 103. the aid of France.1 Emperor's 16; Bal Georgey, ii. Klapka, ii. 85. of Hunga The melancholy forebodings awakened by the Emperor's answer to Paskewitch's intercession were ere long too Executions fatally verified. Georgey, indeed, was pardoned,* and rian leaders. Klapka escaped by the terms of his capitulation; but most of the other generals were brought to courts-martial, and mournful tragedies followed the convictions which took place. Besides Count Bathiany-whose execution has already been mentioned-fourteen other Hungarian officers were sacrificed to the thirst of Austrian vengeance. They were Colonel Ernest Kiss, Count Louis Aulich, General Damjanics, General Nagy Sandor, Colonel Ignatz Torot, Major Lahour, General Count Vicszey, Captain Knezich, Colonel Ernest Von Poltenberg, General Count Leiningen, General Joseph Schwirdel, General Aristides Desewffy, General William Lazar, and Count Ladislaus Csaryi-besides a few others condemned to lengthened imprisonments. The death on the scaffold of brave men, whose military exploits had so recently filled all Europe with admiration, excited a universal feeling of horror. They all behaved nobly on the scaffold. Damjanics, with his leg broken, was conveyed in a carriage to the place of execution, and was spectator * He was offered rank and employment in the Russian army, but honourably declined it, and preferred remaining in poverty in his own country, endeavouring to mitigate the severities exercised against his brave companions in arms. VOL. VIII. 3 B LV. 1849. CHAP. of the deaths of his friends. "It is strange," said he, " that I should be the last here: I used to be the first in the attack." But here the severities of the victorious Government ended. The inferior officers and private soldiers were all dismissed without punishment to their homes; no massacre of common men took place. Seventy thou ii. 106, 154, sand of the Hungarian soldiers, after a short interval, entered the Austrian service, where they have ever since remained faithful to their colours.1 1 Klapka, and App., No. xi. 86. Mutual jealousy of and Rus the war. Cruelties of this sort have in every age been found so uniformly to spring from the violence of the passions Austrians awakened in civil warfare, that they may be considered sians after as inherent and unavoidable in that species of conflict; and it is that which has always caused the authors of such dissensions to be regarded as the greatest curses of the species. But in the present instance the reaction in the general mind against the severities was unusually swift, and the consequences lasting. Every one felt that the contest had been a national one, and should have been conducted on the principles of civilised warfare. Hardly was their joint triumph concluded, when jealousy broke out between the victorious armies. The Russians taunted the Austrians with their defeats, and their being forced to call in the aid of the Czar. The Austrians ascribed everything to themselves, and allowed nothing to the Russians, to whom the success had really been owing. In an official proclamation to his troops on the conclusion of the war, Haynau, while he congratulated them on their ultimate victories, never once mentioned the Russians. The Czar retorted by a proclamation to his soldiers, in which he ascribed everything Proclama to their valour, and utterly ignored the Austrians. Out 15, 1849 of this ill-starred triumph arose a confidence on the one Proclama side, a sore feeling on the other, which brought these two powers into covert, but most effective, enmity during the Crimean war, and will probably bring them into fierce hostility in future times.2 2 Haynau's tion, Aug. Nicholas' tion, Aug. 17, 1849; Tolstoy, 198. |