The next place is Komárom (Komorn) a place with about twenty thousand inhabitants, which, though it does not look particularly picturesque from the river, has a long history, as a town that has withstood many sieges. It is now connected with the south bank by an iron bridge about 440 yards long, and is an important military centre owing to its situation at the extreme eastern end of the Csallóköz Island (Grosse Schütt) where the left arm of the Danube united with the river Vág rejoins the main stream. The town, largely hidden by the long Elizabeth Island, round the narrow eastern end of which we turn to approach the landing place, is strongly fortified and has the reputation of never having been successfully besieged, despite the many times that it has been attacked. The boast of its impregnability is typified in the statue of a virgin placed on the ramparts of the newer fortifications with the inscription “Nec arte, nec Marte.” An older form of the boast took the shape of a female figure in one of the streets, inscribed with a pun upon the town’s name “Kom-morn” or “come to-morrow.” The tradition is that when summoned to capitulate the scornful reply of the defenders was “Komme-morgen,” which an anonymous versifier rendered thus—
“The walls are manned, the gates are strong,
Advance ye sons of plunder—
They come! The siege is fierce and long,
And loud the rival thunder!
‘Yield!’ cries the foe—but still in scorn,
Though seemingly in sorrow—
Their answer was—‘Who wins Komorn
Must call again to-morrow!’”
Komárom (Komorn) was one of the principal points of the War of Hungarian Independence. Near it a big battle was fought and won by the Hungarian leader, Görgy, and the Austrians were again defeated at the town by General Klapka less than a month later. During this war, indeed, the place justified its boast of impregnability, for General Klapka not only held it against all assaults but only surrendered the town—and then with all the honours of war—when the cause which he represented was known to have failed. In 1866, when Vienna was threatened by the Germans, the Austrians remembered the place that had stood out so strongly nearly twenty years earlier, and the national treasury was removed thither from Vienna. A statue of Klapka was fittingly erected some years ago.