The rebellious Ban was taken under the protection of the troops stationed near Vienna, and commanded by Prince Windischgraetz.  These troops, after taking Vienna by storm, were led as an imperial Austrian army to conquer Hungary.  But the Hungarian nation, persisting in its loyalty, sent an envoy to the advancing enemy.  This envoy, coming under a flag of truce, was treated as a prisoner, and thrown into prison.  No heed was paid to the remonstrances and the demands of the Hungarian nation for justice.  The threat of the gallows was, on the contrary, thundered against all who had taken arms in defence of a wretched and oppressed country.  But before the army had time to enter Hungary, a family revolution in the tyrannical reigning house was perpetrated at Olmuetz.  Ferdinand V. was forced to resign a throne which had been polluted with so much blood and perjury, and the son of Francis Charles, (who also abdicated his claim to the inheritance,) the youthful Archduke Francis Joseph, caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.  But no one can by any family compact dispose of the constitutional throne without the Hungarian nation.

At this critical moment the Hungarian nation demanded nothing more than the maintenance of its laws and institutions, and peace guaranteed by their integrity.  Had the assent of the nation to this change in the occupant of the throne been asked in a legal manner, and the young prince offered to take the customary oath that he would preserve the Constitution, the Hungarian nation would not have refused to elect him king in accordance with the treaties extant, and to crown him with St. Stephen’s crown, before he had dipped his hand in the blood of the people.

He, however, refusing to perform an act so sacred in the eyes of God and man, and in strange contrast to the innocence natural to youthful breasts, declared in his first words his intention of conquering Hungary, (which he dared to call a rebellious country, whereas it was he himself that raised rebellion there,) and of depriving it of that independence which it had maintained for a thousand years, to incorporate it into the Austrian monarchy.***

But even then an attempt was made to bring about a peaceful arrangement, and a deputation was sent to the generals of the perjured dynasty.  This house in its blind self-confidence, refused to enter into any negotiation, and dared to demand an unconditional submission from the nation.  The deputation was further detained, and one of the number, the former President[*] of the Ministry, was even thrown into prison.  Our deserted capital was occupied, and was turned into a place of execution; a part of the prisoners of war were there consigned to the axe, another part were thrown into dungeons, while the remainder were exposed to fearful sufferings from hunger, and were thus forced to enter the ranks of the army in Italy.

[Footnote *:  Louis Bathyanyi.  See Note to p. 6.]