to
that effect.

* * * * *

It was the night before the battle of Szolnok.

"Singular!" muttered the General, as he paced up and down his tent;
"my spirits were wont to rise before a battle, and now I feel as
anxious as if the thought of to-morrow were unwelcome!" And he strove
to solve in his own mind the cause of such unusual gloom.

Some time after, an _officier de corps_ remarked within the General's
hearing, that to-morrow they should have the famous harangue.

"The tartar take it!" exclaimed the General; "it was that made me feel
as if I could creep out of my skin. But never fear--they shall have
it, and the enemy shall pay for it!"

The General had finished his plans of battle in a quarter of an
hour;--the speech was not ready late in the morning.

Having arranged his troops in order, he rode out before them. They all
knew that he was to harangue them that day, and they knew that it was
as great a sacrifice on his part as if he were to deliver up his
battery to a parliamentary tribunal for half a day.

Halting before the standard of the ninth battalion, he lifted his
csako, grew very pale, and began:--

"Comrades!"

At that instant, the guns thundered across the Theiss.

The General's countenance suddenly brightened--diction and phraseology
were forgotten; and drawing his sword, he cried in a voice of
thunder,--"There is the enemy! Follow me!" which was answered by a
tremendous cheer, while the whole army dashed after their gallant
leader towards the cannon's roar.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Vecsey's _corps d'armee_ stormed the ramparts on the
opposite side of the Theiss.

The attack, however, was only apparent: the manoeuvre of either party
frustrated the other.

The imperial troops endeavoured to entice the enemy within their cross
fire by charges of cavalry and feint retreats; while the hussars,
seeing the cuirassiers turn in good order, gave the command "right
about," and quietly returned to their stations.

And now the Hungarians prepared to storm the entrenchments; and when
the battalions were almost within gunshot, they advanced their cannon,
and without any impediment poured a vigorous fire on the
ramparts--appearing to expend their whole strength before the enemy,
while their real aim was totally different.

They were only answered here and there by a gun from the ramparts; but
the battery concealed in the wood did not give