the national Hungarian militia.  The well-disposed part of the community was powerless to resist the robbers, for after the disastrous events of 1849 the Austrian Government prohibited the possession of firearms, even for hunting purposes, so that villages and towns, one might almost say, were at the mercy of a band of well-armed robbers.  The Government were so busy hunting down political conspirators, and hanging, shooting, and imprisoning patriots, that they were indifferent to the increase of brigandage.  The statistics of the political persecutions which Hungary suffered at the hands of Austria during the ten years that followed Villagos were significant.  Upwards of two thousand persons were sentenced to death, nearly ten times that number were thrown into prison, and almost five thousand Hungarian patriots were driven into exile—­amongst the number Deak, the yet-to-be saviour of his country.

But to return to the robbers.  They had spread themselves over the whole land; from the forests of Bakony to Transylvania, from the Carpathians to the Danube, no place was free from these desperate marauders.  They committed incredible deeds of boldness.  On one occasion seven or eight robbers attacked a caravan of thirty waggons in the neighbourhood of Szegedin, the cavalcade being on its way to the fair in that town.  The traders were without a single firearm amongst them, so that the fully—­armed brigands effected their purpose, though it was broad daylight.  Another time they entered a market town in Transylvania and coolly demanded that the broken wheel of their waggon should be mended, threatening to shoot down anybody who offered the slightest opposition.  The post was frequently stopped, but it came to be remarked, that though the passengers were generally killed, the drivers escaped.  This, together with the fact that the post was always stopped when there were large sums of money in course of transit, led the authorities to suspect that their employes were in collusion with the robbers, and subsequent events proved this to be the case.

When the hostility of Austria had somewhat cooled down, the dangerous up-growth of these robber bands attracted the serious attention of the Government, and not only gendarmerie but military force were employed against them.  The officials to a man were Germans and Bohemians, indifferently honest, and hated by the peasantry, who, after all, preferred a Hungarian robber to an Austrian official.  The consequence was that they were not by any means very ready to depose against the “poor lads,” and the Government found themselves unequal to cope with the difficulty, so things went from bad to worse.