At the close of hostilities in 1849, Haynau, commissioned by the Vienna
Government, condemned people to death with unsparing barbarity--it was a
way the Austrians had of stamping out insurrections. Amongst their
victims was Count Louis Batthyanyi, some time President of the Hungarian
Diet. Haynau wanted to have him hung at the gallows, but he was
mercifully shot, at Pest on the 6th October 1849. It is said that the
infamous Haynau was nearly mad with rage that his noble victim escaped
the last indignity of hanging. His remains were ordered to be buried in
a nameless coffin in the burial-ground of the common criminals,.and for
many years it was supposed that he had received no other sepulchre. This
was not so, however, for two priests who were greatly attached to the
magnate's family procured possession of his body, and secretly conveyed
it to the church in the Serviten Gasse, where they built up the coffin
in the wall, and carefully preserved it for years. When the
reconciliation with Austria took place, concealment being no longer
necessary, they revealed their secret. The coffin was then opened, and
it was found that the features of the unfortunate Batthyanyi had been
singularly well preserved. Several who had fought for freedom by his
side in 1848 looked once more on the face of their leader. The
subsequent funeral in the new cemetery was made the occasion of a very
marked display of patriotic feeling.
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