party in the Hungarian Cabinet: already
weakened by the loss of Szechenyi, and
discredited by the failure of its attempts
at compromise and conciliation.

The moment they were relieved of
Szechenyi's presence, the radicals had
resolved to get rid of all their conservative
colleagues at one stroke.  They calculated
that, if the ministry were broken up, the
only persons able to form another would
be themselves.  They therefore placed their
resignation in the hands of the Palatine,
fully persuaded that his imperial and
royal highness would not venture to accept
it.  The archduke, however, disappointed
that expectation by taking them at their
word. The vexation of their partisans,
who commanded the majority in the chamber,
was excessive, and was so unpleasantly
evinced that the Palatine soon afterwards
quitted Pesth in disgust.  On his way to
Vienna he passed the outposts of the Ban's
army; and it is said that he there
encountered his cousin, the young Archduke
Frederick.  If so, he could no longer have
had any doubt as to the real policy and
personal sentiments of the Emperor, in
whose hands he placed his own resignation
as soon as he reached Vienna.

Batthiany now attempted to form a new
cabinet from which Kossuth and all the
radicals were to be excluded. In the existing
temper of the country such an attempt
was, from every point of view, preposterous;
but its failure was precipitated by the
rejection of a demand brought before the
National Assembly at Vienna on the 17th
of September by a deputation from the
Hungarian Diet; which, with Vesselenyi at the
head of it, was charged to solicit assistance
against the Croats.  The deputation
had only just returned empty-handed, when
the news reached Pesth that the enemy
was within a day's journey of the Magyar
capital.  Kossuth, borne to the summit
of power on the shoulders of an alarmed
and intensely excited people, was
immediately proclaimed Dictator. The National
Guard, under the command of the
two Huniadys, was ordered forward to
arrest the advance of Jellachich.  Meanwhile,
Kossuth himself mounted the tribune,
and, in one of his most impassioned orations,
appealed to every member of the house to
work with him " spade in hand at the
fortifications of the town," while their wives
and daughters were " boiling oil and lead
to pour upon the head of the invader."

It was at this critical moment that the
Emperor issued a manifesto "to his faithful
subjects in Hungary," informing them
that, in the absence of the Palatine, and
every other constitutional authority, he had
invested with full powers Field-Marshal
Count Lamberg for the restoration of order
throughout the kingdom, and had
appointed the count commander-in-chief of
the military forces in Hungary.

The modern capital of Hungary consists
of two cities, separated by the Danube; or,
more properly speaking, it consists of
a city and a citadel, between which the
broad and rapid current of the great river
flows down to its eastern goal.  On the
right bank of the river, that is to say, on
the side first reached by any traveller from
the Austrian capital, on the site of the
ancient residence of the Turkish pashas,
and commanding from its airy eminence
one of the most spacious and exhilarating
prospects in the world, stands the great
modern stronghold of Buda.  Beneath it,
on the same side of the river, is one of
those small towns which in former times
the shelter of a strong fortress always
created around it.  On the left bank of the
river, and immediately opposite to this
ancient acropolis, is Pesth, the modern
capital.  The city and the citadel are now
connected by a magnificent bridge, one of
the creations of Stephen Szechenyi.  In
1848, however, they were united only by
a bridge of boats, and the two together
comprised a population of about one
hundred and fifty thousand souls.

Count Lamberg arrived at Buda on the
evening of the 29th of September.  Kossuth,
who had proclaimed the decree of the King
of Hungary to be null and void, was
resolved to oppose the viceroy's entry into
Pesth.  During the night of the 28th,
scythes and pitchforks were distributed
to a mob of peasants who had flocked into
Pesth from all the surrounding districts.

Count Lamberg, who desired to confer
with the Austrian commandant before
crossing the river, alighted at the fortress
of Buda.  He was unaccompanied by
any escort, and was either ignorant of the
danger that menaced him, or fatally
indifferent to it.  Scarcely had he quitted the
fortress, when it was burst into by a band
of armed ragamuffins, who entered the
apartments of the commandant, demanding,
with brandished weapons and homicidal
yells, that the unfortunate count should be
delivered up to them.  After searching the
fortress, in all directions, they left it in
pursuit of their victim. Meanwhile, the
imperial plenipotentiary was quietly crossing