As soon as the news of these events reached Jellacic he evacuated his threatened positions on the banks of the Raab and marched for Vienna. Jellacic marches on Vienna Windischgrätz, with his garrison, set out from Prague. Revolutionists of all races flocked into Vienna. Among them were the German delegates Froebel and Blum, and the Polish general, Bem. The Hungarians pursued Jellacic no further than their frontier. The regiments expelled from Vienna, under the command of Count Auersperg, joined forces with Jellacic. The insurgents at Vienna manned their fortifications as well as they could, and called upon the people throughout Austria to take up arms. Emperor Ferdinand, at Olmütz, offset this by an imperial proclamation to his people in which he guaranteed all peasant rights. Prince Windischgrätz was created a field marshal, with full command over all the forces in the empire, except those under Radetzky in Italy. Windischgrätz took immediate steps to effect a Windischgrätz moves from Bohemia junction with Jellacic by seizing the bridges at Krems and Stein. In vain did the delegates from Frankfort, who now appeared upon the scene, present their offer of intervention. Windischgrätz would not listen to them. On October 23, the Austrian army, 80,000 strong, appeared before Vienna. The defence of the city had been intrusted to Captain Messenhauser, an officer of the regular army, and to General Bem. Robert Blum, the German Parliamentarian, fought in the ranks. While Windischgrätz was wasting his time in parleys, an army of 18,000 Hungarians crossed the frontier and threatened Jellacic's rear. On October 28, twenty-four hours after the time fixed in Windischgrätz's last ultimatum, he began his assault on the city. Assault on Vienna In the course of an all-day fight the troops succeeded in taking the suburbs. The scenes of that night were frightful. The troops bivouacked on the ramparts. The following Sunday was spent in further parleys. Already the terms of capitulation had been settled, when Messenhauser, from the top of the church of St. Stephen, made out the approaching columns of the Hungarians. The news of their arrival was signalled to the city by a column of Arrival of Hungarians smoke rising from the top of the tower. All negotiations for surrender were dropped. The Hungarians attacked Jellacic on the banks of the Schwechat, within a few leagues of the capital. The boom of their artillery could be plainly heard in Vienna. In a frenzy of enthusiasm the Viennese resumed the struggle. A corps of students attempted a sortie. Unfortunately Battle of the Schwechat for them, the engagement on the banks of the Schwechat turned against the Hungarians. Shortly after noon they gave way all along the line and fell back toward Hungary. On the ramparts of Vienna the hopeless fight of a few thousand civilians against an army of 90,000 men was continued until nightfall. At six in the evening the troops broke into the city.

On the following day, November 1, Prince Windischgrätz declared Vienna Fall of Vienna under military law. All arms had to be delivered within forty-eight hours. Arrests and courts-martial followed in profusion. Robert Blum was one of the first to be shot. His colleague, Froebel, owed his life to a political pamphlet signed with his name, in which he had defended the interests of Austria against those of a united Germany. A new Ministry was installed, Stadion's Ministry under the leadership of the notorious Prince Felix Schwarzenberg and Count Stadion. They announced their programme to be the maintenance of a strong central government and the integrity of the Austrian Empire, with quick suppression of the civil war in Hungary. A new Reichsrath was convoked at the village of Kremsier, near Olmütz. On December 2, it was announced that Emperor Ferdinand had resolved to abdicate his throne. His brother, Abdication of Ferdinand Archduke Francis Charles, renounced the succession. The Archduke's son, Francis Joseph, a youth of eighteen, was declared by a family council to have attained his majority. In virtue of this he ascended the throne as Emperor.

The Hungarian Diet, on learning of this transfer of the crown, refused to Francis Joseph, Emperor acknowledge Francis Joseph as King of Hungary. The whole nation was summoned to arms. The command of the army was given to Goergey. His first serious problem was a rising of the Roumanians in Transylvania against Magyar rule. The Roumanian peasants committed all conceivable atrocities. When they raised the standard of the Empire, the Austrian commander, General Puchner, espoused their cause. Transylvania was lost to Hungary. The Roumanians led by Puchner co-operated with Jellacic's forces in The war in Hungary Croatia, and moved on Hungary from that quarter. On December 15, the main Austrian army, under Windischgrätz, crossed over the River Leitha and invaded Hungary. Goergey declared from the first that Pesth would have to be abandoned. Kossuth's frantic efforts to prevent this only served to hamper Goergey's able campaign. One line after another had to be abandoned. At last, toward the close of the year, Kossuth and his Magyar Diet were compelled to evacuate Pesth. The Hungarian army fell back over the River Theiss, upon the fortress of Comorn, and the mountainous regions of northern Hungary. Kossuth's government was established at Debreczin.

1849

ON JANUARY 5, Windischgrätz and Jellacic made their triumphant entry into Budapesth. The Vienna "Gazette" announced "the glorious end of the Bem's aggressive campaign Hungarian campaign." Prince Windischgrätz rested on his arms. During this interval the Polish general, Bem, who had escaped from Vienna, aroused his countrymen in Siebenbürgen and carried the war into that region. The Austrian troops under General Puchner were beaten in a series of engagements. Goergey, aided by another Pole, Dembinsky, repulsed the Goergey and Dembinsky Austrian troops under General Schlik in the north. While Windischgrätz remained idle at Pesth, Klapkah, the new Hungarian Minister of War, organized the Magyar forces and created new defences for his country.

Prince Metternich, whiling away his idle hours among other notable refugees at London and Brighton, now had the satisfaction of seeing the dangers of Afghan war revolt brought home to the people of England. The tidings of a disaster in Afghanistan provoked an outburst of alarm and indignation in England. On January 13, Lord Gough had advanced on Sher Singh's intrenchments at Chilian Wallah. They were held by 30,000 Sikhs with sixty guns, screened by a thick jungle. As the British imprudently Chilian Wallah exposed themselves the Sikhs opened fire. Lord Gough ordered a general charge. The drawn battle that followed proved the bloodiest affair in the history of British India. Driven from their first line of defences, the Sikhs stood their ground in another stronger position, and repulsed the British attack. Nearly 2,500 British officers and men fell in the fight. In the face of the Afghan rejoicings Lord Gough claimed a victory. The British War Office, however, Lord Gough superseded hastily despatched Sir Charles Napier to India to supersede Lord Gough. There was still time for that commander to retrieve himself. General Whish captured the town of Multan, and by terrible bombardment of the citadel brought Mulraj to surrender. General Whish then joined forces with Lord Gough in his final struggle with Sher Singh. At Guzerat, on February 22, "Battle of the Guns" Lord Gough achieved the crowning victory known as "the battle of the guns." For two hours a terrific artillery duel was maintained, the Sikhs firing with all their sixty pieces. Finally the British stormed their batteries in a combined charge of bayonets and cavalry. The Sikh forces were scattered, and their camp, with most of their standards and guns, were captured by the Punjab annexed to England British. Dost Muhammad Khan and his Afghans were driven out of Peshawar and narrowly escaped to Kabul. Mulraj was imprisoned for life. The whole of the Punjab was annexed to British India. A successful administration of this hostile province was Lord Dalhousie's first great triumph.

About the same time, General Taylor, the conqueror of Buena Vista, was President Taylor inaugurated inaugurated as President of the United States. One sentence in his inaugural address provoked derision: "We are at peace with all the world and the rest of mankind." The old Spanish missions in the conquered territory were deprived of their wealth and influence. The name of San Francisco was adopted in place of Yerba Buena. Besides California, the new Development of Western America territory included the subsequently admitted States of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas. The Apache and Navajo Indians in those regions gave immediate trouble. The gold seekers tracking across the plains were the first to suffer from the Indians. Still the stream of immigrants poured into California. Their halfway stations on the Missouri River developed into the two thriving towns of Omaha and Council Bluffs. The Bay of San Francisco was soon surrounded by a settlement of tents and sheds. A Vigilance Committee took affairs into its The "Forty-Niners" own hands, and administered justice without fear or favor. Six times the new city was destroyed by fire. Within two months all traces of the disaster would be lost. California soon had a population entitling it to Statehood. President Taylor eagerly seconded the wishes of the people for a government of their own. The first Constitutional Convention of California declared against slavery. More than $40,000,000 worth of gold was produced in the new State, and the first gold dollars were coined.

The death of Edgar Allan Poe, the American poet, was as tragic as his life had been. After the death Death of Poe of his wife, Poe had engaged himself to marry a wealthy lady in Richmond, and the wedding day was fixed. On his way to New York to settle up affairs in anticipation of his marriage, Poe fell in with some of his companions in dissipation at Baltimore. He became drunk, wandered through the streets, and was finally taken to a hospital in an unconscious condition. Later he became delirious and finally expired, Posthumous poems saying: "Lord, help my poor soul!" After Poe's death the simplest and sweetest of his ballads, "Annabel Lee," and the wonderful poem of "The Bells," were published. His former friend and editor, Griswold, published a scathing denunciation of the dead man in the New York "Tribune." Poe's fame as a master of the weird and fanciful in literature was already established wherever his thrilling tales and superb poem "The Raven" had penetrated. He was one of the few poets of America at that period who had succeeded in achieving an international reputation. The best of his poems were rendered in choice French by Baudelaire, while his short stories were translated into almost all European languages. As his biographer, Woodberry, has said: "On the roll of American literature Poe's name is inscribed with the few foremost, and in the world at large his genius is established as valid among all men. Much as he derived nurture from other sources, he was the son of Coleridge by the weird touch in his imagination, by the principles of his analytic criticism, and the speculative bent of his mind." Most characteristic of Poe's genius perhaps are these lines from his famous poem "The Conqueror Worm":

Lo! 'tis a gala night
"The Conqueror Worm" Within the lonesome latter years!
An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
In veils, and drowned in tears,
Sit in a theatre, to see
A play of hopes and fears,
While the orchestra breathes fitfully
The music of the spheres. That motley drama—oh, be sure
It shall not be forgot!
With its Phantom chased for evermore
By a crowd that seize it not,
Through a circle that ever returneth in
To the self-same spot,
And much of Madness, and more of Sin,
And Horror the soul of the plot. Out—out are the lights—out all!
And over each quivering form
The curtain, a funeral pall,
Comes down with the rush of a storm,
And the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy "Man,"
And its hero the Conqueror Worm.