There were a great many speeches made upon the
subject, and Count Forgacs with a considerable military force was
despatched to Zala and the adjoining country against the robbers. He
simply drove them out of one part of the country to carry on their
devastations in another, and dreadful robberies and murders were
reported from Szegedin. On several occasions the post was stopped, and
the passengers were invariably killed. They even stopped the railway
train one day at Peteri.
Government were now obliged to take stronger measures. They recalled
Count Forgacs, and despatched Count Radaz as Royal Commissary with
augmented powers, Parliament in the mean time voting a grant of 60,000
florins for the purpose.
The energetic measures taken by Count Radaz led to some remarkable
disclosures. He discovered that tradesmen, magistrates, and other
employes in towns and villages were in communication with the brigands,
and in fact shared the booty. It came to be remarked that certain
persons returned suddenly to their homes after a mysterious absence,
which corresponded with the commission of some desperate outrage in
another part of the country.
In the space of fifteen months Count Radaz had to deal with nearly six
hundred cases of capital offences, and no less than two hundred of the
malefactors were condemned to the gallows.
"Wherever they can the peasants will shelter the 'poor lads' from the
law," said my friend.
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