an average the highest death-rate of any European town! By
some this is attributed to the great excess of infant
mortality--consolatory for the grown-up people, as reducing their risk;
but the children, who die like flies before they are twelve months old,
may say with the epitaph in the country churchyard--

"If then we so soon were done for,
What the deuce were we begun for?"

I do not speak as one with authority, but duly-qualified persons tell me
that nursery reform is much needed in Hungary. I know not what it is
they do with the children, only it seems the system is wrong somewhere,
as the bills of mortality clearly testify.

Then, again, the position of Pest is not healthy; it lies low, indeed
some part of the city is built on the old bed of the Danube. The
drainage, however, is very much improved of late years, and the
magnificent river embankments have done much to obviate the malaria
arising from mud-banks.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Skating--Death and funeral of Deak--Deak's policy--Uneasiness about
the rise of the Danube--Great excitement about inundations--The
capital in danger--Night scene on the embankment--Firing the
danger-signal--The great calamity averted.

The winter is usually a very pleasant season at Buda-Pest. There is
plenty of amusement; in fact, during the carnival, parties, balls, and
concerts succeed one another without cessation. The Hungarians dance as
though it were an exercise of patriotism; with them it is no languid
movement half deprecated by the utilitarian soul--it is a passion
whirling them into ecstasy. But dancing was not the only diversion. The
winter I was at Buda-Pest a long spell of enduring frost gave us some
capital skating. The fashionable society meet for this amusement in the
park, where there is a piece of ornamental water about five acres in
extent. Here the Skating Club have established themselves, having
erected a handsome pavilion at the side of the lake to serve as a
clubhouse.

From time to time _fetes_ are given on the ice. I was present on more
than one occasion, and I must say it would be difficult to imagine a
more animated or a prettier scene. The Hungarians always display great
taste in their arrangements for festive gatherings. During the gay
carnival of 1876 "all went merry as a marriage-bell" till the sad news
spread that the great patriot Deak was sick unto death. Then we heard
that he had passed away from our midst--I