gain the failing confidence of the sovereign,
to reassure his majesty's increasing alarm,
and to justify the policy of the government,
Baron Bach caused to be drawn up a
private memoir by one of his employés,
which he himself carefully corrected, and
which, under the title of Rückblick
(Retrospect) was an elaborate apology for the
Bach policy; which it affirmed to have
been specially beneficial to all the material
interests of Hungary. This memoir not
being intended for publication, but only for
the eye of the sovereign, was written with
a reckless audacity of assertion.

Soon, a small pamphlet, written in
German, was printed and published in
London; and speedily circulated at Vienna.
The complicated and clumsy title of it was,
"Ein Blick auf den anonymen Rückblick,
welcher für einem vertrauten Kreis, in
verhältnissmässig wenigen Exemplaren in
Monate October, 1857, im Wien erschien.
Von einem Ungar. London, 1859."
Anglice: "A glance at the Retrospect, of
which, in October, 1859, a few copies
were printed for private and confidential
circulation at Vienna. By a Hungarian."
This publication was a crushing reply to
the Bach Memoir, which it mercilessly
thrust into publicity after having stripped
it bare of every rag of argument, and
branded the word "Lie" upon its forehead.
The author of this pamphlet was Stephen
Szechenyi.

On the 21st of August, 1859, Baron
Bach's resignation was accepted by the
Emperor. Baron Hübner, who had till
then been Austrian ambassador at Paris,
assumed the portfolio for home affairs, in
place of Baron Bach, in the Rechberg-Schmerling
cabinet. To these statesmen
the pacification of Hungary now appeared
to be a matter of urgent necessity, nor did
they scruple to enter into correspondence
on the subject of it with the recluse of
Döbling. At last a happier day seemed
about to dawn, both for Hungary and for
the Great Magyar.

CHAPTER XII.

IN vain! That gleam of hope was
momentary only, and soon "the jaws of
darkness did devour it up." Baron Hübner's
proposals were considered too hazardous,
by his colleagues, who were also dissatisfied
with the loyalty of his proceedings. He
retired from office suddenly, without having
achieved any solution of the Hungarian
question. There still remained in the cabinet
a considerable lump of the old leaven.
The disappointment was a terrible one to
the excitable temperament of Szechenyi.
Among those disciples of Baron Bach who
remained in the ministry, was one whose
theory of the executive function was known
to be even more hostile to personal liberty
than that of his master. This was Baron
Thiery, minister of police.

The following anecdote has been related
to us by an intimate friend of Szechenyi's:

In the year 1833 a duel was fought
between Count Stephen Szechenyi and Baron
Louis Orczy, in consequence of some offence
taken by one or other of them at expressions
used in the course of a violent political
discussion. On their way to the place of
meeting, the two principals recounted, each
to his own seconds, the dreams which they
had respectively dreamed over night. Each
had dreamed that he was killed by a pistol
bullet in the head, but neither had seen in
his dream the hand by which the shot was
fired. In the duel Baron Orczy was slightly
wounded. The two combatants survived
the encounter. But many years afterwards,
Louis Orczy blew out his brains. The fate
of Stephen Szechenyi is now to be told.

At half past six o'clock on the morning of
the 3rd of March, 1860, a police officer, M.
Felsenthal, accompanied by two commissaries,
entered the apartment of Count
Szechenyi, at Döbling, and proceeded to
search the premises.

The count received these unexpected
visitors with the contemptuous courtesy of
a great nobleman towards ill-mannered
inferiors. He assisted their investigations,
offered them cigars and refreshments, and
overwhelmed them with ironical compliments.
The police officers withdrew without
having discovered any papers of the
least political importance, but not without
having possessed themselves of a little
casket containing the count's private
correspondence with his family. After their
departure, he was informed that during this
search the house had been surrounded by
a strong military cordon, and that
simultaneously his two sons, Bela and Odo, and
his most intimate friends, Gaza Zichi,
Maximilien Falk, Ernest Hollan, and
Aurelius Kecskemethy, had been subjected
to a similar domiciliary visit, accompanied
by a similar display of military force.

This proceeding on the part of the
minister of police created great scandal
and alarm at Vienna. To justify it, Baron
Thiery publicly declared that the police
were on the traces of a vast conspiracy, the
soul of which was Count Stephen Szechenyi.