The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-19 00:00:00

GERMANY

AND

THE NORTHERN STATES.

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.

RETREAT OF JELLACHICH AND
AUERSPERG FROM VIENNA.
Vienna is safe for the present. JELLaciiicii is in
full retreat for Croatia, pursued by the victorious
Hungarians, and AUERSPERG, having been unable to
effect a junction with JELLicuicif, has retired from
his position at the Belvedere, so that Vienna is now
entirely free and in the hands of the people and the
Diet. The retreat of JELLACHICII and of AUERSPEII6
took place on the 12th, after a smart skirmish be-
tween the Croats and the citizens, in which the
former were defeated. In The Sun of yesterday
we gave the narrative of events at Vienna up to the
evening of the 11th, and at the same time gave a
paragraph from the Breslau Gazette, which stated
that on the evening of that day Vienna had been
bombarded. Happily there was no truth in the
rumour. The firing which had been heard pro-
ceeded from the attack of the Croatians on the
posts of the National Guard at Marxline, an
attack in which they were defeated with the loss of
several prisoners, immediately after which they com-
menced a precipitate retreat towards Nieustadt, on
the high road to Agram, the capital of Croatia,
closely pursued by the victorious Magyars, who,
having driven him out of Hungary, had followed him
to Vienna.

During the whole of the evening of the 11th the
preparations for defence against the apprehended at-
tack of JEELACHICII were continued, and were
extended to the faubourgs. At eleven o'clock
on the evening of that day firing- was heard in the
direction of the Maria hills ; and from the steeple of
St. Stephen's, where a watch had been stationed to
give notice of the movements of the enemy. Alarm
signals were thrown up, alarm guns were fired in
the town and in the faubourgs, and instantly the
streets were filled with armed men. It was shortly
after announced that the firing had !been occasioned
by an attack of Croats on the outposts of the National
Guard, in which the Croats had been defeated, and
the citizens then retired to rest. In the course of the
evening the newly-appointed Hungarian Minister,
Colonel RECSEZ, and his Adjutant, Baron DRNKS I EIN,
were arrested and confined in the Aula. A young
man of the name of JACOBSON, in the dress of an
Hungarian officer, was also arrested as a spy. RECSEZ
was the Minister who countersigned the appointment
of JELLACHICU as Commander •in-Chief and Governor
of Hungary.
A letter from Vienna, dated on the morning of the
12th, thus describes the appearance of the besieging
armies, as seen from the tower of the cathedral of St•
Stephens :
" From the towers of the venerable old pile of St.
Stephen's the eye can overlook all the legions that
surround us—ltutheners, Marsuren, Russniaks,
Poles, Galicians, Czechs, Bohemians, Germans, and
Old-Austrians. They stretch from the camp at Bel-
vedere, on the one side, to the village of Simmiring
and to the Danube ; on the other, to the Southern
Railway—in a wider range, from Klein-Neusiedl to
Hiemberg, Modling, and 13ruhl to the declivities of
the Vienna wood, swarm the battalions of the Ban
Jellachich ; Illyrians, with their red caps, the red
cloaks (Serechsaner), Croats, numerous Granzer,
mingled with cavalry and artillery of the Imperial
army. At the other side of the Danube, at Siissen-
brunn, there is a Wallachian regiment—we know not
where from and for what purpose—detached bodies
of prisoners and cavalry, and on the road to Hun-
gary that battalion of Italian Grenadiers which on
the sth of October was ordered to march from Vienna
to Pesth, and whose Colonel, Ferrari, was compelled
by his own officers to resign his command. In the
background, however, in au easterly direction, on the
right bank of the Danube, anxiously expected, the
advanced posts of the Magyars are visible. It seems
as if the whole monarchy had appointed a military
rendezvous under the walls of the capital, to watch
with drawn swords and sharp eyes over the spectacle
of this great movement of the people."
The preparations for the defence of the city were,
however, too formidable for JELLACHICII to en-
counter, and on the approach of the Magyar army,
he commenced a precipitate retreat; while AUERSPERG,
unable to effect a junction with him, and cut off
entirely from all communication with the partisans
of the EMPEROR, abandoned his position at Belvedere.
During the time they occupied Belvedere the troops
of AUERSPERG committed the most dreadful excesses.
On the morning of the 11th, a butcher, who in his
white apron passed near an outpost, was seized, the
meat he was carrying taken from him, and
he himself stabbed to death. Some frightfully
mutilated bodies were found in the . deserted
camp of AUERSPERG. One of them was con-
veyed by the people to the front of the Parlia-
ment House, from which several of the Members
came out in order to look upon the melancholy spec-
tacle. Amongst them was SCIIUSELKA, who, after
gazing with emotion on the disfigured corpse, ex-
claimed, " Swear, brothers, that you will not abandon
one iota of freedom or of popular rights, even if all
of us must suffer this death." With uplifted hands
the assembled crowds took the oath as administered
by the popular orator.
On the other hand, with the single exception of the
horrible murder of Count LATOUR, no excesses
whatever have been committed by the citizens ; the
utmost order and discipline are maintained among the
National Guards, the Academic Legion, and the
armed workmen, and property (even the property of