of first youth, received me with the unembarrassed modesty of good society, and spoke French charmingly; but the mother, who sat in the large chair and smiled languidly as the husband introduced me, was evidently under the leaden pressure of sombre cares or declining health, taking little part in the conversation; but the secret of her melancholy soon came out. Her only son had been engaged in the revolution, had retired into Turkey along with the refugees, and had turned Moslem.

"For my own part," said the worthy old man, who had taken no part in the revolution, "I cannot suppose that I am to be separated from my son for ever, and therefore, although he is my only son, I bear up as well as I can; but my poor wife,-you know that womankind has not so robust a nature as we men- "And he no

sooner said this than, as if to show how weak philosophy was in the battle with nature, the tears began to trickle down his cheeks. "So," continued he, "I am just about to take a journey to Vienna, in order to see if it be possible to get him back to this country, no matter what sacrifice it cost me."

I need not say how, in such a scene as this, my obdurate fanaticism of impartiality in Hungarian politics at once gave way to a feeling of sympathy for the Magyars in their sufferings, which I scarcely ever felt in reading and hearing the accounts of the Magyar reign of terror over the other nations, and how I told these people all that my ingenuity could suggest as to the likeliest way to restore the lost son to the mourning mother.

Grosswardein, during the Magyar movement, was the great arsenal of the army; and having applied for permission to see the fortress, and the various localities of those extensive operations, I devoted a day to this object. I first went into the fort which still has the old Turkish curtains and bastions, constructed after the feudal system of high walls and towers had passed away, and before the mathematical ingenuities of Vauban and Cohorn had completed and complicated the new system of defence.

But the centre edifice forming a pentagon was modern. Here during the winter that preceded the Russian campaign, the bank-note press, the percussion-cap manufactory, and other handicrafts of war were in full operation. The first being the most important of all the munitions, and the secret of the procuration of all the rest, and thus times are altered from the period when Croesus showing his hoards of gold, was informed that iron would command them; for in Hungary paper commanded iron, not representatively of capital, according to the British system of banking, but eo ipso in a manner unknown to our canny northern habits. In short, Grosswardein was Brummagem in more ways than one. The cannon were also bored here after being cast in the wood of St. Marton outside the town; and various buildings were pointed out to me as the seats of various operations, but no signs of those gigantic works were then visible, except a few unused church bells untransformed from their sabbath occupations to the mission of wounds and death.

CHAPTER XX.

THE HUNS IN HUNGARY.

If we go back to the period of Attila, the most notable of the Asiatics, who first confronted the decrepit civilisation of Europe with the barbarous valour of the Huns, we find that his head quarters must have been somewhere to the north of Grosswardein, and the account given by Priscus, of his visit to this part of Hungary at that remote period, is so full and minute, that I reproduce for the general reader the abstract of a document well known to all scholars. The Romans were in the middle of the fifth century no longer the haughty masters of the world; the division between the eastern and the western empires

had taken place. Attila, the King of the Huns, pressed upon both; and in the intervals of war, received their embassies with the gravity and occasional insolence of a superior.

The embassy in question started from Constantinople under the reign of the younger Emperor Theodosius, traversed Thrace, and at the modern Nissa entered the dominions of Attila; in other words, Servia belonged no longer to the Emperor of the Greeks, but to the King of the Huns (A.D. 448). The object of the embassy being to satisfy Attila on the subject of his demand, that all the deserters of his nation or territory, residing in the Eastern Roman Empire, should be delivered up to him, a Scythian, called Edecon, accompanying Maximin, the Greek ambassador, into Hungary.

They found the city of Naissus ruined, and without inhabitants, except a few sick who had taken refuge in the remains of the temples; and, near the river, the bones of those who had fallen in the recent war. In Servia, through which they passed on their way to the Danube, we recognise the passage from the wooded and mountainous environs of the Morawa to the marshy plains of the Danube, which they crossed somewhere between Semendria and Passarovitz, in canoes formed of trunks of trees hollowed out, such as I saw on the Theiss and on the lakes of the Switzerland of Croatia.

They then passed into what is now the Banat of Temesvar, where the tents of Attila were pitched near the hills, and consequently in the eastern part of this Duchy, for there are no hills in this part of Hungary except the slopes of the Carpathians, between Lugos and Oravitza; and here the Greek ambassador, with his suite, wished to pitch his tent on the high ground, but was prevented by the Huns, because Attila was on the plain. It appears from the account of Priscus, that one of the Huns of Attila, who had been sent to Constantinople, had been promised by a eunuch of the emperor a large weight of gold and an asylum in the empire if he would assas

sinate Attila, the terror of the Roman world, who, after having murdered his own brother, was now the King of the Huns, at the head of 700,000 fighting men; and being a man, not only of the most daring bravery, but consummate astuteness, it was supposed that at his death the empire would have an easier position. But Edecon, the Hun in question, had revealed his project to Attila, who was thereupon highly incensed, but nevertheless sent the embassy that night an ox and Danube fish for supper, but refused to see the envoy of the Greek Emperor (Maximin), who was not in the secret of the intended assassination of Attila.

"When we were permitted to enter," says Priscus, "and were presented, we saw Attila seated on a wooden chair, and remained at some distance. Maximin (the ambassador) then advanced and saluted the barbarian, handing him the letter of the Emperor, and saying, 'that the Emperor wished him and his, health and prosperity.' 'May the Romans enjoy all they wish me,' answered the barbarian; and, turning to Vigilius (who was in the secret of the intended assassination), he vented abuse upon him, and asked him how he dared to enter his presence, as he had accompanied a former embassy, at which it was agreed that all the Hun deserters should be delivered up? Vigilius attempted to reply, 'that they had all been delivered up, and that not one remained among the Romans;' but Attila, getting heated with anger, overwhelmed him with reproaches, and said, 'that, but for his respect for the character of an ambassador, he would crucify him, and deliver his body to the vultures.""

The embassy, after this inauspicious commencement, then proceeded along with Attila to his capital, or rather palace, and head quarters in the north of Hungary; and in the description of the route we easily recognise the unchanged and unchangeable character of the physical geography of the district:-the wide-spreading plain, the three navigable rivers,-one of which is the Tiphisas or Theiss, the Drecon, and Tigas; which are no doubt the

Maros, and either the Great or the Little Koros. We learn that maize, or Indian corn, was cultivated instead of wheat, and a barley drink is used, called Kam. It appears that then, as now, marshes were abundant; and that a storm coming on in the night, the tents were blown down, and, presenting themselves at a village, they were received with hospitality, and a fire made of dried reeds. The mistress of this village was one of the widows of Bleda, the murdered brother of Attila, and she sent them, not only provisions, but beautiful females, according to Scythian hospitality; and the ambassador presented her, in return, with red sheepskins, Indian pepper, dates, and other dried fruits.

After a week's march, they came to a considerable town, in which was the house of Attila, which was much more lofty and beautiful than the others of his empire. It was, however, built of wood, and surrounded by an ornamental paling, and adorned with towers. At some distance was the bath, which Onegesis, the wealthiest and most powerful of the Huns, except Attila, had built of stones brought from Pannonia; "for there are neither," says Priscus, "stones nor lofty trees in this part of Scythia," which seems to me to be conclusive against the supposition that the head quarters of Attila were at Tokay, which is within a convenient distance of both wood and stone; so that it must have been farther south in the plain, probably not very far from Debreczin. appears that the builder of this bath was a Roman, made prisoner at Sirmium, who had hoped that liberty would be the prize of his labour; but Onegesis had made him the scrubber of his bath, which is an art in itself, and thus the Roman remained in durance vile.

It

When Attila arrived in this village, young maidens came to meet him, walking in rank and file, under a canopy of fine white linen, held up on each side by the hands of women. When Attila passed the house of Onegesis, the wife of the latter came out, followed by a crowd of female slaves, who presented him with meats