with
fury.

The Hungarian patriots had seventy-five thousand men under arms. The
spirit of the whole nation was with them, and the Austrian troops were
driven from almost every fortress in the kingdom. The affairs of Joseph
seemed to be almost desperate, his armies struggling against
overpowering foes all over Europe, from the remotest borders of
Transylvania to the frontiers of Portugal. The vicissitudes of war are
proverbial. An energetic, sagacious general, Herbeville, with great
military sagacity, and aided by a peculiar series of fortunate events,
marched down the valley of the Danube to Buda; crossed the stream to
Pesth; pushed boldly on through the heart of Hungary to Great Waradin,
forced the defiles of the mountains, and entered Transylvania. Through a
series of brilliant victories he took fortress after fortress, until he
subjugated the whole of Transylvania, and brought it again into
subjection to the Austrian crown. This was in November, 1705.

But the Hungarians, instead of being intimidated by the success of the
imperial arms, summoned another diet. It was held in the open field in
accordance with ancient custom, and was thronged by thousands from all
parts of the kingdom. With great enthusiasm and public acclaim the
resolution was passed that Joseph was a tyrant and a usurper, animated
by the hereditary despotism of the Austrian family. This truthful
utterance roused anew the ire of the emperor. He resolved upon a
desperate effort to bring Hungary into subjection. Leaving his English
and Dutch allies to meet the brunt of the battle on the Rhine and in the
Netherlands, he recalled his best troops, and made forced levies in
Austria until he had created an army sufficiently strong, as he thought,
to sweep down all opposition. These troops he placed under the most
experienced generals, and sent them into Hungary in the summer of 1708.
France, weakened by repeated defeats, could send the Hungarians no aid,
and the imperial troops, through bloody battles, victoriously traversed
the kingdom. Everywhere the Hungarians were routed and dispersed, until
no semblance of an army was left to oppose the victors. It seems that
life in those days, to the masses of the people, swept incessantly by
these fiery surges of war, could only have been a scene, from the cradle
to the grave, of blood and agony. For two years this dismal storm of
battle howled over all the Hungarian plains, and then the kingdom, like
a victim exh