, as they desired to take part in the great national
struggle. The Provisional Government accepted their services, and they
came pouring in from every part of the country. At first they behaved
very well, and in fact many of these "irregulars" distinguished
themselves by acts of great valour. In the end it was the old story;
they soon showed a degree of insubordination that rendered them worse
than useless to the regular army. By the time the struggle for
independence had found its melancholy ending at Villagos, these fellows
were again at their old tricks of horse-stealing and cattle-lifting, and
they went so far as to waylay even the _honved_, the national Hungarian
militia. The well-disposed part of the community was powerless to resist
the robbers, for after the disastrous events of 1849 the Austrian
Government prohibited the possession of firearms, even for hunting
purposes, so that villages and towns, one might almost say, were at the
mercy of a band of well-armed robbers. The Government were so busy
hunting down political conspirators, and hanging, shooting, and
imprisoning patriots, that they were indifferent to the increase of
brigandage. The statistics of the political persecutions which Hungary
suffered at the hands of Austria during the ten years that followed
Villagos were significant. Upwards of two thousand persons were
sentenced to death, nearly ten times that number were thrown into
prison, and almost five thousand Hungarian patriots were driven into
exile--amongst the number Deak, the yet-to-be saviour of his country.

But to return to the robbers. They had spread themselves over the whole
land; from the forests of Bakony to Transylvania, from the Carpathians
to the Danube, no place was free from these desperate marauders. They
committed incredible deeds of boldness. On one occasion seven or eight
robbers attacked a caravan of thirty waggons in the neighbourhood of
Szegedin, the cavalcade being on its way to the fair in that town. The
traders were without a single firearm amongst them, so that the
fully--armed brigands effected their purpose, though it was broad
daylight. Another time they entered a market town in Transylvania and
coolly demanded that the broken wheel of their waggon should be mended,
threatening to shoot down anybody who offered the slightest opposition.
The post was frequently stopped, but it came to be remarked, that though
the passengers were generally killed, the drivers escaped. T