mentioned before, the Szeklers rose _en masse_
against the Austrians. One of their officers, Colonel Alexander Gal,
proved himself a very distinguished leader. Corps after corps were
organised and sent to aid General Bem. "It was a terrible time; the men
had to fight the enemy in the plain while our old men and women defended
their homesteads against the jealous Saxons and the brutal Wallacks."

It was not in one place, or from one person, but from every one with
whom I spoke on the subject, that I heard frightful stories of Wallack
atrocities. In one instance a noble family--in all, thirteen persons,
including a new-born infant--were slaughtered under circumstances of
horrible barbarity within the walls of their castle. The name I think
was Bardi; it is matter of history.

Amongst other horrors, the Wallacks on several occasions buried their
victims alive, except the head, which they left above ground; they
would then hurl stones at the unfortunate creatures, or cut off the
heads with a scythe. It was not a war of classes but of race, for the
poor peasants amongst the Magyars and Szeklers fared just as badly at
the hands of the infuriated Wallacks as the nobles.

The belief is still held that the Vienna Government instigated the
outbreak. Certainly arms had been put into the hands of these
uncivilised hordes under the pretence of organising a sort of militia.
Metternich knew the character of these irregulars, as he had known and
proved the character of the Slovacks in Galicia in the terrible rising
of the serfs in 1846. His complicity on that occasion has never been
disproved.

The winter of 1848-49 must have been a time of unexampled misery to the
Magyars of Transylvania. The nobles generally dared not remain in their
lonely chateaux; it was not a question of bravery, for how could the
feeble members who remained home from the war guard the castle from the
torches of a hundred frantic, yelling wretches, who, with arms in their
hands, spared neither age nor sex? For the time they were mad--these
Eastern people are subject to terrible epidemics of frenzy!

The Szekler town of Maros Vasarhely, which was strong enough to keep the
Wallacks at bay, was the sanctuary of the noble ladies and children of
that part of Transylvania. It was so full of fugitives that the
overcrowding was most distressing. A lady, the bearer of an historic
name, told me herself that she and seven of her family passed the whole
winter in one sm