ed in prayer.

To-morrow, one may return triumphant from the battle to lay his
laurels at his bride's feet. And the other--what may be his fate?

Sleep at last brought rest to the weary eyes, and gave back its
restrained feelings to each beating heart, and they appeared again in
dreams. And one spoke, not of war, nor of his country, but of love
alone, eternal and unchangeable; but the other only came to bid
farewell, silently and sadly. And then again she saw him; but his dark
eyes were closed, and the pale moonbeams bathed his dying brow.

Their mother heard them murmuring in sleep, and stole to their
bedsides.

Tears rolled down one pale sleeper's face; while a bright smile was
playing on the other's, and illumined its sweet repose.

* * * * *

Damjanics' army halted opposite Szolnok during the night, after two
hours' march, and awaited in battle order, and without watch-fires,
the signal to resume the march.

The roar of cannon on the opposite side of the Theiss was the expected
signal.

The Hungarian General had seen several campaigns. Whenever he came up
with the enemy, his quick glance discovered as if by instinct their
strongest point, and there he directed all his force, crying, at the
head of his troops, "Follow me!"

His system, however, was not generally approved of in the army. Many
of the Generals affirmed that it was not enough to gain a battle:
attention must be paid to the rules of war, various obligations
attended to for which every General is responsible, proclamations
issued, harangues made, &c.--with all of which Damjanics dispensed. He
was neither a statesman nor a student--he was simply a soldier.

On quitting the Banat, however, he issued the following proclamation
to his enemies:--

"Dogs!

"I retire at present, but I will return.

"If in the meantime you dare stir, I will sweep you from off the face
of the earth, and then shoot myself through the head as the last
Raczien, that no remnant of our race may be left!"[59]

[Footnote 59: Damjanics was by birth a Racz or Raczien, who were the
bitterest enemies of the Hungarians, and committed many excesses and
cruelties during the rebellion of 1848-9. The proclamation is here
translated word for word.]

The results of this first attempt so much encouraged the General, that
he determined, of the many necessary things required of him, to
harangue his troops before the next action, and actually made a vow