I found the postmaster at Csik Szereda a very intelligent man, with a fund of anecdotes and recollections, which generally centred in the troubles of ’48.  As I mentioned before, the Szeklers rose en masse against the Austrians.  One of their officers, Colonel Alexander Gal, proved himself a very distinguished leader.  Corps after corps were organised and sent to aid General Bem.  “It was a terrible time; the men had to fight the enemy in the plain while our old men and women defended their homesteads against the jealous Saxons and the brutal Wallacks.”

It was not in one place, or from one person, but from every one with whom I spoke on the subject, that I heard frightful stories of Wallack atrocities.  In one instance a noble family—­in all, thirteen persons, including a new-born infant—­were slaughtered under circumstances of horrible barbarity within the walls of their castle.  The name I think was Bardi; it is matter of history.

Amongst other horrors, the Wallacks on several occasions buried their victims alive, except the head, which they left above ground; they would then hurl stones at the unfortunate creatures, or cut off the heads with a scythe.  It was not a war of classes but of race, for the poor peasants amongst the Magyars and Szeklers fared just as badly at the hands of the infuriated Wallacks as the nobles.

The belief is still held that the Vienna Government instigated the outbreak.  Certainly arms had been put into the hands of these uncivilised hordes under the pretence of organising a sort of militia.  Metternich knew the character of these irregulars, as he had known and proved the character of the Slovacks in Galicia in the terrible rising of the serfs in 1846.  His complicity on that occasion has never been disproved.

The winter of 1848-49 must have been a time of unexampled misery to the Magyars of Transylvania.  The nobles generally dared not remain in their lonely chateaux; it was not a question of bravery, for how could the feeble members who remained home from the war guard the castle from the torches of a hundred frantic, yelling wretches, who, with arms in their hands, spared neither age nor sex?  For the time they were mad—­these Eastern people are subject to terrible epidemics of frenzy!

The Szekler town of Maros Vasarhely, which was strong enough to keep the Wallacks at bay, was the sanctuary of the noble ladies and children of that part of Transylvania.  It was so full of fugitives that the overcrowding was most distressing.  A lady, the bearer of an historic name, told me herself that she and seven of her family passed the whole winter in one small room in Maros Yasarhely.  Added to the discomfort and insalubrity of this crowding, they were almost penniless, having nothing but “Kossuth money.”  For the time the sources of their income were entirely arrested.  In this instance one of the children died—­succumbed to bad air and privation.  Another patrician dame kept her family through the winter by selling the vegetables from her garden; this together with seventeen florins in silver was all they had to depend upon.  Add to this the misery of not hearing for weeks, perhaps even for months, from their husbands or sons, who were with the armies of Goergey or Bem.