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Yet
after this last glorious feat of war, good fortune deserted the national
banners. The grand heroic epoch was hastening to its tragic end. Two
hundred thousand Russians crossed the borders of Hungary, and were there
reenforced by sixty thousand to seventy thousand Austrians, whom the
Viennese Government had succeeded in collecting for a last great effort.
It was easy to foresee that the exhausted Hungarian army could not long
resist the superior numbers opposed to them. For months they continued
the gallant fight, and in one of these fierce engagements Petofi, the
beloved poet of the nation, lost his life; but in the month of August
the Russians had already succeeded in surrounding Gorgei's army. Gorgei,
who was now invested with the supreme power, perceiving that all further
effusion of blood was useless, surrendered, in the sight of the Russian
army, the sword he had so gloriously worn in many a battle, near
Vilagos, on August 13, 1849. The remaining Hungarian armies followed his
example, and either capitulated or disbanded.


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