The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1851-05-08
BY ANDREW ]. riley. :
NISGELLAHB0U S.
From the Knickerbocker for April.
ESCAPE OF MADAME KQSSJTEH.
An Authentic Narrative.


DuRryG the month of August, 648, the Pres
i3ent- Governor Of Hungary, Louis KOssutb,
with the principal authors Of his provisional
Government. were in the fortified town of Arad,
On the river AIaroseh. Between that place and
the town of Zegadin, on the Tisch, in the vicin-
itv Of ArGd, Georgey, with the Hungarian troops
under his command, lay eneamped, while behind
him, toward the Tisch, was the Russian army Of
reserve. under Paskiewiteh. Dembinski, with
his men, beseiged Temeswar, and he had already
carried its third wall. Between him and the
Tisch Law the united Austro- Russian forces
The army of Benz had been defeated at Her
nanstadt by the Russian General Luders, and
he had fed with small band of faithful follow
ers toward Temeswar.
With this position OF the combatants, the
plan of Dembinsd was to unite with Georgey
near Arad, and then to attack the Russian for
ees. Before this was effected, news reached
him of the capitulation of Georgey, and that the
Governor. NJ Kossuth, had been compelled to
forsake Arad, and retire to the town of Yilajos
Before leaving Arad, the Governor separated
from his wife and children, and their parting
scene is said TO have been one of the most touch
ing nature Under the circumstances of the
moment, it was a subject Of more even than
doubt whether they would ever again meet on
earth. 1t was only when young Hungarian
nobleman named AshbOt now in exile IN Kuta-
yieh with NJ. Kossuth solemnly 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
II
Of the Governor, and this individual subsequent
II delivered them up 10 the tender mercies of
Haynau, for the purpose Of securing his own
pardon and safety The .eAildren set ont before
their mother, and the latter in her fight, en-
deavored to keep at least so near TO them as to
hear now and then Of their safety.
Madame Kossuth sought out brother of hers
residing in the town Of Vilagos, and he is now
imprisoned in the fortress of Comorn, with
many other of the unfortunate Hungarian pa
t-iots, for eighteen years, on account Of the
suceor which he then gave to his sister. Leaving
him, she next went in search of her children,
and wandered 10 PeSta, or farm house. of Bo-
eksak, belonging TO a relative. There she fell
i'll Of q 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 attachment TO her husband.
Now, having no other object in view than her
own safety, without friends better off than her
self, she soon became reduced to a state Of com
plete destitution. In disguise, she wandered
over some of the most miserable portions of Hun
gary. She even, as a means of safety, as wen
support, sought for service as a servant, and
by telling that she was a poor woman who had
just been discharged from public hospital
which, indeed, she very mnch resembled-was
SO fortunate as to find employment in the family
Of humble carpenter, in the town of Crash
Hays, who littls thought he was served by the
lady Of Louis Kossuth, the late Governor of
Hungary Even where notices were exposed in
the streets offering forty thousand forins for
her capture, and prOelaiming death as the pun
isAment of the person who would dare TO harbor
or conceal her from the authorities
Among the persons who fed with NJ Kossuth
before the overwhelming number Of his enemies,
was an elderly lady, whom it is necessary to
designate as Madame L and who, from be-
ing unable to ride as fast and as long as those
who we're stronger and younger than herself
soon became exhausted, and was left behind
She had son, major in the Hungarian army,
near the person of the Governor, and both the
son and mother were warmly attached TO his
interests. Madame L, when unable TO pro-
eeed longer with the fugitives in order to reach
place of safety in the dominions of the Sultan
OF Turkey, determined to remain in Hungary.
and devote herself 10 the fnding.pf Madame
hossuth and restoring her to her husband.
For this benevolent purpose, Madame L
disguised herself as beggar; and after n lono
and weary journey, Oftener on foot than in anv
conveyance, she crossed the vast sandy plains
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,
10 the house of General G., now in the service
OF the sultan in Syria, to be kept with his own
'nFee children, hoping that they would thus be
screened from those who sought after them
Inc eldest, named Louis. after his father. was