The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-18 00:00:00

THE SUN,

ESCAPE OF MADAME KOSSUTH.
EXTRAORDINARY NARRATIVE.
The following extraordinary and authentic narra-
five of the circumstances under which Madame Kos-
suth escaped from the men-bloodhounds of Austria,
who were in pursuit of her, will be read at the present
moment, when that lady is among us, with profound
interest. We are indebted for it to one of the New
York journals :
During the month of August, 1848, the President-
Governor of Hungary, Louis Kossuth, with the
principal officers of his provisional government, were
in the fortified town of Arad, on the river Maroeeh.
Between that place and the town of Zegadin, on the
Tisch, in the vicinity of Arad, Gorgey, with the
Hungarian troops under his command, lay en-
camped ; while behind him, towards the Tisch, was
the Russian army of reserve, under Paskiewitch.
Dembinski, with his men, besieged Temeswar, and
he had already carried its third wall. Between him
and the Tisch lay the united Austro-Russian forces.
The army of Bern had been defeated at Herman-
stadt, by the Russian general Luders, and he had
fled, with a small band of faithful followers, towards
Temeswar.
With this position of the combatants, the plan of
Dembinski was to unite with Gorgey, near Arad, and
then to attack the Russian forces. Before this was ef-
fected, news reached him of the capitulation of Gorgey,
and that the Governor, M. Kossuth, had been com-
pelled to forsake Arad, and retire to the town of
Vilagos. Before leaving Arad, the Governor sepa-
reted foom his wife and children, and their parting
scene is said to have been one of the most touching
nature. Under the circumstances of the moment, it
was subject of even more than doubt whether they
would ever again meet on earth. It was only
when a young Hungarian nobleman, named Ash-
but, now in exile in Kutayiah with M. Kossuth, so-
lemnly swore to his wife that he would never leave
her husband, that Madame Kossuth consented to be
separated from him, and seek safety in flight. The
children were confided to the care of a private secre •
tary of the Governor, and this individual subsequently
delivered them up to the tender mercies of Haynau,
for the purpose of securing his own pardon and safety,
The children set out before their mother, and the
latter, in her flight, endeavoured to keep so near to
them as to hear now and then of their safety.
Madame Kossuth sought out a brother of hers,
residing in the town of Vilagos, and he is now im-
prisoned in the fortress of Comorn, with many others
of the unfortunate Hungarian patriots, for 18 years,
on account of the succour which he then gave to his
sister. Leaving him, she next went in search of her
children, and wandered to a pesla or farmhouse, of
Boeksek, belonging to a relative. There she fell ill
of a typhus fever, which nearly ended her life ; and
when so far recovered as to be able again to travel, she
continued her journey in search of her children. She
soon learned that they had been given up by their
protector to the Austrian General Haynau, and taken
to Pesth. Her own safety depended wholly upon the
fidelity of the Hungarian peasants, and on their at-
tachment to her husband.
Now, having no other object in view than her own
safety,. without friends better off than herself, she
soon became reduced to a state of complete destitu-
tion. In disguise, she wandered over the most miser-
able part of Hungary. She even, as a means of safety
as well as support, sought for service as a servant, and
by telling that she was a poor woman, who had just
been discharged from a public hospital—which,
indeed, she very much resembled—was so fortu-
nate as to find employment in the family of a humble
carpenter, in the town of Orash Hayti, who little
thought he was served by the lady of Louis Kos-
suth, the late Governor of Hungary. Every where
notices were exposed in the streets offering forty
thousands florins for her capture, and proclaiming
death as the punishment of the person who should
dare to harbour or conceal her from the authorities.
Among the persons who fled with M. Kossuth be-
fore the overwhelming number of his enemies, was an
elderly lady, whom it is necessary to designate as
Madame L—, and who, from being unable to ride
as fast and as long as those who were stronger and
younger than herself, soon became exhausted and was
left behind. She had a son, a major in the Hunga-
rian army, near the person of the Governor, and both
the son and the mother were warmly attached to his
interests. Madame L—, when unable to proceed
longer with the fugitives, in order to reach a place of
safety in the dominions of the Sultan of Turkey, de-
termined to remain in Hungary, and devote herself to
the finding of Madame Kossuth, and restoring her to
her husband.
For this benevolent 'purpose, Madame L—, dis-
guised herself as a beggar ; and after a long and
weary journey, oftener on foot than in any convey-
ance, she crossed the vast sandy pliins of Southern
Hungary, and at length reached the place in which
Kossuth's children were, but could hear nothing of
their mother.
She learned that the children had been sent, soon
after their mother had lost sight of them, to the house
of General G--, now in the service of the Sultan
in Syria, to be kept with his own three children,
hoping that they would thus be screened from those
who sought after them. The eldest named Louis, after
his father, was seven years of age, and all were told that,
they acknowledged they were the children of the
Governor, they would be imprisoned by the Austrians,
rind never see their parents again. So that when an
Austrian officer traced them to the house of General
G--, he was at a loss to know which of the children
were those of General G--, and which those of M
Ke.seth; and, approaching the eldest of the latter, he
said—" So, my little man, you are the son of the
Governor ?"
To which the youth replied, " I am not, sir."
His firmness surprised and vexed the officer, who
was certain, from the statement of their betrayer, that
these before him were the lost treasure of his ambi-
tious search. He now endeavoured to frighten the
children, and, drawing a pistol, directed it to the
breast of the boy, and said that if he did not at once
acknowledge that he was the son of Kossuth he would
put a ball through his heart. Young Louis, who, it
is said, shows himself, now in exile at Kutayiah, much
of the character of his father, replied in a tone equally
firm—
"l tell you, sir, I am notthe son of Kossuth."
The officer, baffled by the child's simplicity of
manner and apparent sincerity, was divested of his
Iconvictions, and led to believe that be had been im•
posed upon.
But before Madame L— could get near them,
other agents of the Austrian Government had
been more successful, and the three children had
been caried off in secret to Pesth, near the
clutches of the butcher Haynau. The mother and
sister of M. Kossuth bad alto been captured, and
placed in strict confinement. It may be here men-
tioned in this little narrative of the sufferings and de-
liverance of the relatives of Louis Kossuth, that
Madame L--, on finding where and how her
children were situated, found out her own maid-ser-
vant, and so succeeded as to have her engaged at
Pesth as their nurse. This person never left them
until the moment of their final deliverance from their
Austrian gaolers was arrived. After thus having
provided for the welfare of the children of bl. Kos-
suth, Madame renewed her search for their
destitute acd suffering mother.
Finding no trace of her, Madame L— deter-
mined to follow the fugitives, and if she reached
Widdin, to ascertain from M. Kossuth himself where
his poor wife had gone, and then return in search of
her. Continuing in the disguise of a beggar, some-
times on foot, at others in a farmer's cart, this heroic
woman reached the frontiers of Hungary, and. crossing
them, entered the fortified and walled town of Widdin,
where the late Governor of Hungary and his brave
unfortunate companions were, enjoying the protection
and hospitality of the Sultan of Turkey. Madame
L— applied to M. Kossuth, but not being known
to him personally, and the -Austrian General having
set so high a price on the capture of his wife, he at
first regarded her in the light of an Austrian spy.
Having, however, soon found her son, who had fol-
lowed the Governor into Turkey, he readily con-
vinced M. Kossuth of the identity of his mother.
All the information which M. Kossuth could give
her was, that there was a lady in Hungary, in whose
house he believed his wife would seek a refuge ; and
if she was not still there, this lady would most
probably know where she was.
The Governor
hisov wife,ernornow furnished Madame L— with
a letter_ to this lady, and another with his own signet-
ring fo
which would be evidence of her
fidelity. It is not here necessary to follow Madame
L— on her toilsome journey. Devoted to the
philanthropic work
thew which she had undertaken,
she wandered over
in
reachingandy steppes of Hungary,
,utis'a letter. This she reaidnaflualornwmde-AsAist
until she succeededthe little town in
which the lady resided, and delivered to her M.
immediatelyKos-
adeaxmi
exist
et
Li
n— burnedh—er
lady informed
possession. arinfleeveland
it'notd
that the wife of Governor Kossuth had left her
residence in the guise of a mendicant and in-
tended assuming the name of Martha
that she was to feign herself to be the widow of ;
soldier who had fallen in battle, and that if possible,
she would go to the very centre of Hungary, in those
vast pasture lands where she hoped no one would seek
after her.
With this information, Madame L-- again re-
, Fumed her journey. She feigned to be an aged grand•
mother, whose grandson was missing, and that she
was in search of him. She made many narrow
escapes while passing guards, soldiers, and spies ;
at length she reached the plains before mentioned.
She went from house to house, as if in search of her
grandson, but in reality to find one who would answer
the description given of poor Maria F—n. At
length in a cabin she heard that name mentioned,
and on inquiry who and what the person was,
learned that she was the widow of
soldier, who had fallen in battle anda
grand Hungarian
that
she
had a child, who was with its parents. They I