Baroness B---- had a complete repertory of robber stories,
some of which are so characteristic that I will repeat them here.
I have before alluded to the peculiarity which existed in the old system
preserving to the peasant his personal freedom, though the land was
burdened with duties. It was not till 1838 that the Austrians
introduced the conscription, and subsequently they carried out the law
with a brutality that made the innovation thoroughly detested by the
peasantry. Accustomed to their tradition of personal freedom, the forced
military service in itself was regarded with intense dislike. The richer
classes were enabled to pay a certain sum of money for exemption, but
the poor were helpless; they were dragged from their houses and sent to
distant parts of the empire, to serve for a long period of years. As
cases had not unfrequently occurred of the recruits running away, they
were subjected to the ignominy of being chained together in gangs; and
as if this was not enough, many superfluous brutalities were inflicted
by the Austrian officials.
To escape from this hated service, many a young man fled from his home
in anticipation of the next levy of the conscription, and hid himself in
the shepherds' _tanya_ in the plain. These remote dwellings in the
distant _puszta_ were no bad hiding--places, and the fugitives were
freely harboured by the shepherds, who shared the animosity of the "poor
lads" against the Austrian conscription.
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