These sacrifices on the part of the country had become a matter of
urgent necessity. The Serb and Wallach insurrection assumed every day
larger proportions, while the Croats, under the leadership of
Jellachich, entered Hungarian territory with the fixed determination of
depriving the nation of her constitutional liberties. But the Hungarian
Government was already able to send an army against the Croatians, who
were marching on Budapest, plundering and laying waste everything before
them. They were surrounded by the Hungarian forces, and a part of their
army, nine thousand men strong, was compelled to lay down its arms,
while Jellachich, with his remaining forces, precipitately fled from the
country. The young Hungarian army had thus proved itself equal to the
task of repelling the attack of the Croats, but the recent events were
nevertheless fraught with the gravest consequences.
The news of the Croatian invasion filled the Hungarians with deep
anxiety, and the extraordinary excitement caused by it cast a permanent
cloud over the soul of that great and noble man, Count Szechenyi. The
mind of the great patriot who had initiated the national movement gave
way under the strain of the frightful rumors coming from the Croatian
frontier. He had been ailing for some time, and his nervousness
increased so greatly under the pressure of the great events following
one another in rapid succession, that when the news came that the enemy
had invaded the country he thought Hungary was lost. His despair
darkened his mind and he sought death in the waves of the Danube. His
family removed him to a private asylum near Vienna, where he recovered
his mental faculties, and even wrote several books. But he was never
entirely cured of his hallucination, and, exasperated by the vexations
he was subjected to by the Viennese Government, even in the asylum, the
great patriot put an end to his own life on April 8, 1860, by a
pistol-shot.
Jellachich's incursion had other important political consequences. The
attack on Hungary had been made by Jellachich in the name of the
Viennese Government, and the intimate connection between the domestic
disorders and the court of Vienna became more and more apparent. This
state of things rendered inevitable a struggle between Hungary and the
unconstitutional action of the court. The Austrian forces were arming
against Hungary on every side. Vienna, too, rose in rebellion against
the court, and now the Hungarians hastened to assist the revolutionists
in the Austrian capital. Unfortunately the young national army was not
ripe yet for so great a military enterprise, and Prince Windischgraetz,
having crushed the revolution in Vienna, invaded Hungary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account