pain for some minutes was so
intense that I could with difficulty keep the saddle, and even when it had
partially subsided, the suffering was very great.

To continue my journey in this agony was impossible; and yet I was
reluctant to confess that I was overcome by pain. Such an acknowledgment
seemed unsoldier-like and unworthy, and I determined not to give way. It
was no use; the suffering brought on a sickly faintness that completely
overcame me. I had nothing for it but to turn back; so, suddenly affecting
to recollect a dispatch that I ought to have sent off before I left, I
hastily apologized to my companions, and with many promises to overtake
them by evening, I returned to Komorn.

A Magyar groom accompanied me, to act as my guide; and attended by this
man, I slowly retraced my steps toward the fortress, so slowly, indeed,
that it was within an hour of sunset as we gained the crest of the little
ridge, from which Komorn might be seen, and the course of the Danube, as
it wound for miles through the plain.

It is always a grand and imposing scene, one of those vast Hungarian
plains, with waving woods and golden corn-fields, bounded by the horizon
on every side, and marked by those immense villages of twelve or even
twenty thousand inhabitants. Trees, rivers, plains, even the dwellings of
the people are on a scale with which nothing in the Old World can vie. But
even with this great landscape before me, I was more struck by a small
object which caught my eye, as I looked toward the fortress. It was a
little boat, covered with an awning, and anchored in the middle of the
stream, and from which I could hear the sound of a voice, singing to the
accompaniment of a guitar. There was a stern and solemn quietude in the
scene: the dark fortress, the darker river, the deep woods casting their
shadows on the water, all presented a strange contrast to that girlish
voice and tinkling melody, so light-hearted and so free.

The Magyar seemed to read what was passing in my mind, for he nodded
significantly, and touching his cap in token of respect, said it was the
young Archduchess Maria Louisa, who, with one or two of her ladies,
enjoyed the cool of the evening on the river. This was the very same
princess for whose likeness I was so eager, and of whom I never could
obtain the slightest tidings. With what an interest that bark became
invested from that moment! I had more than suspected, I had divined the
reasons of General Mar