en twelve and a half feet in the same time. Following close upon
this came intelligence of a disastrous inundation at Vienna which had
caused loss of life and property. The boats and barges in the winter
harbour of the Austrian capital had been dragged from their anchorage,
covering the river with the _debris_ of wreckage; in short, widespread
mischief was reported generally from the Upper Danube.

There was a prevalent idea that Buda-Pest had been saved by the flood
breaking bounds at Vienna, but events proved that our troubles were yet
to come. There was a peculiarity in the thaw of this spring which told
tremendously against us. It came westward--viz., down stream instead of
up stream, as it usually does. This state of things greatly increased
the chances of flood in the middle Danube, as the descending volume of
water and ice-blocks found the lower part of the river still frozen and
inert. Even up to the 21st the daily rise in the river was only six
inches, and if the large floes of ice which passed the town had only
gone on their course without interruption all might still have been
well. Unfortunately, however, this was far from being the case. It seems
that at Eresi, a few miles below Buda-Pest, where the water is shallow,
the ice had formed into a compact mass for the space of six miles, and
at this point the down-drifting ice-blocks got regularly stacked, rising
higher and higher, till the whole vast volume of water was bayed back
upon the twin cities of Buda and Pest, the latter place being specially
endangered by its site on the edge of the great plain.

The authorities now devised plans for clearing away this ice-barrier,
which acted as an impediment to the flow of the river. They tried to
blow it up by means of dynamite, but all to no purpose; and it soon
became apparent that the danger to the capital was hourly on the
increase. At Pest the excitement and alarm became intense, for the
mighty waters were visibly and inexorably rising. We saw the steps of
the quay disappear one after another; then the whole subway of the
embankment became engulfed. Ominous cracks appeared in the asphaltic
promenade of the Corso, and the public were warned not to approach the
railings, lest they should give way bodily and fall over into the water,
which was lapping at the stonework. The "High-Water Commission" found it
necessary to close all the drains, and steam-pumps were brought into
requisition; the town was in fact besieg