Above Komorn, the largest fortress in the country, alone the Hungarian colors were still floating.  General Klapka, its commandant, bravely defended it, and continued to hold it for six weeks after the sad catastrophe of Vilagos.  The brave defender, seeing at last that further resistance served no purpose, as the Hungarian army had ceased to exist, and the whole country had passed into the hands of the Austrians, capitulated upon the most honorable terms.  This was the concluding act of the heroic struggle of the Hungarian people, the brave attitude of the garrison and their commander adding another bright page to the honorable record of the military achievements of 1848 and 1849.

As soon as the Imperialists had obtained possession of Komorn, their commander-in-chief, Baron Haynau, began to persecute the patriots, and to commit the most cruel atrocities against them.  Those who had taken part in the national war were brought before a court-martial and summarily executed.  The bloody work of the executioner began on October 6th.  Count Louis Batthyanyi was shot at Pest, and thirteen gallant generals, belonging to Gorgei’s army, met their deaths at Arad.  Wholesale massacres were committed throughout the country, until at last the conscience of Europe rose up against these cruel butcheries, and the court itself removed the sanguinary Baron from the scene of his inhuman exploits.  The best men in the country were thrown into prison, and thousands of families had to mourn for dear ones who had fallen victims to the implacable vindictiveness of the Austrian Government.  Once more the gloom of oppression settled upon the unhappy country.

Many of the patriots had accompanied Kossuth to Turkey or found a refuge in other foreign countries, and for ten years a great number of distinguished Hungarians were compelled to taste the bitterness of exile.  Kossuth himself went subsequently to England, and visited also the United States.  In the latter country he was enthusiastically received by the great and free American people, who took delight in his lofty eloquence.  During the Crimean War, and the War of 1859 in Italy, Kossuth and the Hungarian exiles were zealously laboring to free their country, by foreign aid, from the thraldom of oppression.  At last, however, the Hungarian nation succeeded in reconquering, without any aid from abroad, by her own exertions, her national and political rights, and made her peace with the ruling dynasty.  But the Hungarian exiles had their full share in the work of reconciliation, for it was owing to their exertions that the nations of Europe remembered that, in spite of Vilagos, Hungary still existed, and that again, at home, the people of Hungary were not permitted to lose their faith in a better and brighter future.

Kossuth, the Nestor of the struggle for liberty, lives at present [1886] in retirement in Turin, [Footnote:  Kossuth died at Turin, Italy, March 20, 1894.—­ED.] and, although separated from his people by diverging political theories, his countrymen will forever cherish in him the great genius who gave liberty to millions of the oppressed peasantry, and who inscribed indelibly on the pages of the national legislation the immortal principles of liberty and equality of rights.