and critical period, called upon the
nation to raise large armies for the defence of the country.

The session of July 11th, during which Kossuth introduced in the House
of Representatives his motions relating to the subject, presented a
scene which beggars all description. Kossuth ascended the tribune pale
and haggard with illness, but the long-continued applause that greeted
him after the first few sentences soon gave him back his strength and
his marvellous oratorical power. When he had concluded his speech and
submitted to the House his request for two hundred thousand soldiers and
the necessary money, a momentary pause of deep silence ensued. Suddenly
Paul Nyary, the leader of the opposition, arose, and lifting his right
arm toward heaven, exclaimed: "We grant it!" The House was in a fever of
patriotic excitement; all the Deputies rose from their seats, shouting,
"We grant it; we grant it!" Kossuth, with tears in his eyes, bowed to
the representatives of the people and said, "You have risen like one
man, and I bow down before the greatness of the nation."

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 an