In deutschen Gau'n besessen,
Das macht, dass ich sie bis zum Grab
Nun nimmer kann vergessen.'
]

III.

But her Majesty, who is a Protestant, is not the only lady now living
who has made her mark in Roumanian history. There is another of whom we
are sure our readers will be glad to hear something, for she is an
accomplished Englishwoman, and it is very questionable whether, after
all, the Roumanians do not owe their independence as much to her energy
and devotion as to any other cause; we mean Madame Rosetti, the wife of
the Home Secretary.[195] It was mentioned in our historical summary that
the patriots of 1848 made their escape to France in that year, and that
they returned after the Crimean war in 1856. That is a long story told
in a, couple of sentences, and but for Madame Rosetti it is probable
they would never have escaped, but would have languished and died in a
Turkish prison in Bosnia, whilst Roumania might have been at this day a
Turkish pashalik or a Russian province. The fact is that all the leaders
of the revolution, fifteen in number, were arrested and conveyed on
board a Turkish man-of-war lying in the Danube; and Madame Rosetti,
whose heroic adventures have formed the theme of a work by
Michelet,[196] helped them to escape from their captors. As we have
already said, she is an Englishwoman, whose maiden name was Grant, and
she had only been married about a year when the revolution broke out.
Her first child was born a day or two before her husband and his
comrades were arrested, but she at once left her bed, and, taking her
infant in her arms, prepared to follow them. First she managed to obtain
an interview with the patriots on board the Turkish vessel to which they
had been conveyed, and there plans were formed which she skilfully and
courageously executed. Disguising herself as a peasant, and carrying her
child, she followed them up the Danube to Orsova, communicating with her
friends from time to time by signals. At Orsova the prisoners were
landed, and whilst they were on shore she succeeded in making their
guards intoxicated, and, with the connivance of the authorities,
prepared suitable conveyances, in which the patriots made their escape.
First they passed through Servia, and reaching Vienna in safety they
entered that city the day after the bombardment, and subsequently they
made their way through Germany, accompanied by their deliverer, and
found a hospitable asylum in Paris.