THE SIEGE OF VIENNA.

THE acts of violence committed in Vienna, which compelled the emperor for a second time to quit his capital on the 6th of October last, left no hopes of legal order being restored, except by force of arms. The chiefs of the insurrectionary party had, subsequently to the retreat of the emperor, only succeeded in retaining the authority which they had forcibly assumed, by an act of horror which has few parallels in history. They commanded the city through multitudes excited to the most frantic passions or in a state of wildest intoxication, while the remainder were paralyzed by fear. They were establishing treasonable connections with revolted Hungary, and sending emissaries to all the provinces of the empire, even where perfect order prevailed, and they were everywhere attempting to plant the standard of rebellion under the pretext of guarding endangered liberty.

In the manifesto of Ferdinand, published at Olmütz on the 16th of October, the emperor announced that he was compelled, with bleeding heart to meet the rebellion which then so shamelessly reared its head in his residentiary city, to oppose it by force of arms, and to combat it till it should be completely quelled, and the murderers of his faithful servants Counts Lamberg and Latour punished. From this moment insurrection at Vienna and Pesth received its doom; happy if such an attitude had been assumed at an earlier period in the history of the rebellion in Austria, and happy for the prospects of general civilisation and the safety and security of lives and property, if such an example should be successfully followed in Prussia and throughout all Germany.

Field-Marshal Prince Windischgratz, who had so distinguished himself in the Revolt of Prague, was accordingly appointed to the command of the army sent against the capital, and the troops thus placed under his command comprised the Bohemian corps of 20,000 men; the Moravian of 12,000, and the army of Poland 12,000 strong; added to these was the Contingent under General Auersperg, consisting of 20,000 men, and the Slavonian army, withdrawn from its unsupported and consequently insufficient operations against the Magyars, to co-operate with the army of Vienna and which army amounted to about 62,000 men, of all arms under the command of the Ban Jellachich. The armies thus united from divers parts of the empire to assist at the reduction of the capital could not have amounted to a force of less than 120,000 men.

The commander-in-chief upon bringing up his army, established the centre of his operations at Hetzendorf in the rear of the palace of Schönbrunn, by which his extreme right was connected with the Slavonian army, while his left extended by the high country west of Vienna to the Danube, the left bank of which river was occupied by the Imperial troops from the flying bridge established at the outpost of Floresdorf, to the Island of Lobau, where it came into contact with the Slavonian army, and thus completely enveloped the city and suburbs.

The Slavonian army had seen hard service during the first fortnight in October. Many even of the officers had not taken off their uniforms

nor seen a bed, and their horses had scarcely been unsaddled for a few hours for days together. It had been intended by the sturdy Ban to have given battle to the Hungarians approaching under Kossuth and Messaros, between Raab and Presburg, but when information was received of the insurrection at Vienna, which had once more driven the emperor from his home, the troops at once set off, under the Ban's personal command, to the relief of the imperial dynasty. The advanced guard of the Slavonian army, being without baggage, travelled with such rapidity as to arrive at Kaiser Ebersdorf in three days from the time of receiving the news; this was on the 10th of October. The Ban finding, however, that the capital was completely in the hands of the rebels, withdrew on the 11th in the direction of Modling, and established his head-quarters at Inzersdorf, near Laxenburg, where he waited for the expected reinforcements. These came on rapidly, Bohemian cavalry and infantry, and troops from Upper Austria and Galicia under Count Auersperg, and the Gallician contingent under Count Schlick, joined their forces to those of the Slavonians within a few days; and the junction thus effected with the Austrian army enabled the line to extend itself to the island of Lobau on the Danube, an island celebrated in the history of Napoleon's campaigns, and thus to invest Vienna along the whole extent of its eastern and north-eastern aspects, and at the same time to interpose between the capital and any relief that might be expected from the side of Hungary.

The Viennese did not, however, lose all hope nor confidence. The state of excitement within the town was great, and only exceeded by the excesses that intoxication and insubordination were effecting in the name of liberty; every lover of law and order, and even strangers, being compelled at the risk of their lives to fight in the ranks of rebellion and discord. The imperial palace and other public buildings of the ancient and noble capital of Austria were, it was reported, filled with gunpowder and destined to be blown up the moment a hostile gun was fired against the city. Two imperial generals in the hands of the rebels were threatened with death in case of bombardment of the city. The Committee of Public Safety not being deemed to be sufficiently energetic Dr. Schütte convoked another assembly for the 23rd inst., for the purpose of constituting a committee that would act with more resolution. The main hope of the Viennese, however, lay in the succour of the Hungarians. Ever since the outbreak of the 6th, which had been mainly brought about by agents of Kossuth,they had placed their dependence on the co-operation of the Magyars. On the evening of the 20th a proclamation from the Hungarian camp was posted in the streets of Vienna, which is characterised by the boastful language, and we regret so to express it, the false and perverted statements in which the Magyars have so largely indulged ever since the commencement of the insurrection.

The Hungarian nation has been united for centuries to the people of Austria by the most intimate bonds. The constitutional liberty conquered in the days of March by the people of the monarchy, and sanctioned by the monarch, has more firmly consolidated these bonds. It is our common duty to defend our constitutional and legal liberty. The Hungarian army hereby declares that it has come to succour its Austrian brethren, and that it will pursue with its whole power the Croatian army, which has been chased from Hungary,

and which is at this moment ravaging the plains of Austria. We are persuaded that in chasing from Austria the hostile army of Jellachich, and re-establishing the interrupted communication with the city of Vienna, we shall render the greatest service to the liberty of the people as well as to the dynasty and to the whole monarchy. The Hungarian army is ready to live and die for the interest of all. Men of Vienna, have confidence in us, God will never abandon our just cause.

This characteristic document was signed by Dionys Pazmandi, President of the Hungarian National Assembly; Moga, commander of the Hungarian army; and three Commissaries Plenipotentiary.

The Hungarians actually crossed the frontiers at two points during the siege of Vienna, but without advantage to the besieged. Six steamers, it is said, were employed to bring a detachment of the Magyar belligerents up the Danube, but the foremost having been received with a brisk fire, the rest deemed it advisable to turn back again. According to some reports, the steamer that was fired upon was sunk. When the siege had attained its height the Hungarian force encamped beyond the Leitha, advanced into the Austrian territory from 15,000 to 20,000 strong, and, as will be afterwards seen, were attacked in the neighbourhood of Schwechat and Kaiser Ebersdorf by detachments from the left wing of Windischgratz's, and the right of Jellachich's army. The route of the Hungarians was complete; the artillery of the Imperial army entailed great losses, and they were thrown back, according to some, upon Brück, according to others, they were driven into the Danube! It was also reported that soon after the commencement of the battle of Schwechat, a great part of the Hungarian troops went over to the Austrian army, and among others the regiment Lichtenstein.

The city being, however, effectively invested, Prince Windischgratz made known to the committee the conditions under which the appeal to the force of arms might be avoided, and which were the possession of the capital, the complete disarmament of those who had taken arms since the 6th of October, the dispersion of the academical legion, the closing of the university, and the extradition of Count Latour's murderers. These conditions meeting with only a categorical answer on the part of the committee, the Imperial commander-in-chief gave notice that if the committee did not surrender by the evening of the 24th, he would bombard the city on the next day.

In the sitting of the Diet on the afternoon of the 22nd, a resolution was passed which declared the proclamation of the state of siege and of martial law as illegal. In reply to this protest of the Diet, Prince Windischgratz stated that his full powers did not extend to a negotiation with the Diet, which he recognised only as a constituent assembly. The only legal authority which he recognised in Vienna was the municipal council, which, he said, was subordinate to him. The commander-inchief persisted at the same time in granting only to the 24th (that was forty-eight hours from the time of answering the protest) for submission, and that there might be no mistake upon that point, issued a second proclamation, dated head-quarters, Hetzendorf, Oct. 23, 1848 :-

In pursuance of the state of siege and martial law for the city of Vienna, the suburbs and the immediate environs, announced in my first proclamation of the 20th of this month, the following conditions are subjoined by me :

"1. The city of Vienna, its suburbs, and immediate environs, have, fortyeight hours after the receipt of this proclamation to declare their submission, and either by legions or companies, to deliver up their arms at an appointed place to a commission; to disarm all individuals who are not in the ranks of the National Guards, including those arms which are private property.

"2. All armed bodies and the Academical Legion are dissolved; the Aula closed; the leaders of the Academical Legion and twelve students to be given up as hostages.

"3. Several individuals yet to be named by me are to be given up.

"4. During the duration of the state of siege all journals and newspapers are suspended, with the exception of the Wiener Zeitung, which is to confine itself solely to official communications.

"5. All foreigners in the capital are to be prepared with legal documents as to the cause of their residence. Those who have no passports are immediately to leave the city.

"6. All clubs are suspended and closed during the state of siege."

Every person who resists the above measures either himself or by exciting others; or who is proved guilty of disturbances, or participation in the same, or who shall be seized with weapons in his hands, shall be subject to martial law.

For the fulfilment of these conditions the term of forty-eight hours is granted after the publication of this proclamation. In the contrary case I shall be forced to adopt the most energetic measures in order to compel the city to obedience.

Prince WINDISCHGRATZ, Field-Marshal.

From the moment that the investment of the city had been perfected, which was by Saturday, October 21, Prince Windischgratz had also commenced cutting off the supplies and interrupting all communications. The Viennese were also on their part making preparations for defence, and the right bank of the Danube and the suburbs were garrisoned by 35,000 men, among whom were many strangers, who had been forced to

serve.

The term thus given to the Viennese did not expire till noon of the 24th; but as early as seven in the morning of that day, the engagement commenced by the battery at the Tabor bridge firing a volley of grape-shot, by which several Austrian officers were killed or wounded. A detachment of the Imperial artillery was forthwith ordered to return the fire of the insurgents; and the officer who commanded it advanced to reconnoitre the enemy's position, when both he and his horse were felled by grape-shot from the same battery, which stood under cover of a barricade, at the opposite extremity of the bridge. The Imperialists proceeded, accordingly, to cover their position by a similar barricade, and then they returned the fire of the insurgents slowly, but with great precision, so much so that almost every one of their shots told among the rebels. During this cannonade, which lasted, with short intermissions, from eight o'clock in the morning till three in the afternoon, the insurgents are stated to have wasted much powder and shot by firing over the village in the direction of the Floresdorf Railway Station, from whence the troops had been moved during the night to the Nussdorf lines and to the isle of Lobau. By three o'clock in the evening, the barricade being blown to pieces about the ears of the insurrectionists, the latter made a precipitate retreat to the suburbs, leaving the Imperial troops in undisturbed possession of the

Tabor bridge. This first success of the Imperial troops led the inhabitants of the neighbourhood to send a flag of truce, and the whole of the Imperial forces in and around Floresdorf crossed the Danube shortly afterwards, and proceeded at once to open fire upon the barricades at the entrance of the suburb of the Aue.

A slight and irregular cannonading was carried on the same day from the lines at Nussdorf and Lobau, and, as darkness came on, the sky was reddened with the flames of fires, kindled by the guns of the Imperialists, and of houses and public buildings devastated and fired by the insurrectionists. The conflagration thus brought about, lasted till past midnight, and heavy pieces of ordnance were every now and then discharged in the direction of the fires. During the skirmishes upon this occasion, the Imperial troops succeeded in capturing a gun, to which were attached four cream-coloured horses belonging to the Emperor Ferdinand, which the insurgents had pressed into the service of their artillery.

Next morning (the 25th) guns were heard booming in all directions soon after nine o'clock, and Prince Windischgratz, certain of the results of the coming struggle, had the bridges destroyed which kept up the communication between the two banks of the river at Floresdorf, in order to prevent the insurgents making their escape, in case of a general assault.

From this date desultory attacks continued to be made upon the Imperial troops by the insurrectionists, and a good deal of skirmishing took place on the Breitensee and the suburb of Lerchenfeld. In consequence of the continual repetition of these attacks, a portion of the Moravian army was ordered to advance upon the insurrectionists, who were intrenched in the Schmelzer church-yard, and the place was carried by the fusileers, under cover of a brisk fire of grape and canister. On the Nussdorf side the insurrectionists were thrown back, and all the neighbouring places, as well as Funfhausen and Sechhausen were occupied. The Ban had also gradually advanced on his side, and his troops occupied the Lusthaus in the Prater, and the powder magazine.

Deputations were in the mean time continually coming from the city to Prince Windischgratz. In consequence of one of them, which was headed by the deputy Pillersdorf, the prince issued the following proclamation:

Proposals have been made to me to come to an amicable mediation with the city, and to enter Vienna with my troops, in order myself to bring into operation the conditions prescribed by me.

I appeal to the sense of justice doubtlessly prevailing with a large portion of the inhabitants of Vienna, and I ask them whether it be possible, after all that has passed-after my troops, without giving any provocation, were fired upon at their very first appearance, whether, I say, it be possible for me to enter Vienna with them-to enter that city which, according to the assertion of all, swarms with armed and evil-minded men, before these men be disarmed, without immediately causing a bloody engagement in the streets? I ask whether those who offer me peace, who call upon me unhesitatingly to enter Vienna, even if they are sincere with me--whether, I say, they would be able to command moderation and order in those who have for weeks, with arms in their hands, terrorized the city?

It is my duty to inform the well-disposed portion of the inhabitants of Vienna of what has taken place since the short time of my appearance here, and previous to it, as I am convinced that those events have been most grossly