THE DESTRUCTION OF SZEGEDIX. 21 



people were even standing half in the water. There 

 Avere weeping mothers with babes at the breast ; 

 children of all ages sobbing aloud ; sick people placed 

 carefully on tables to be above the reach of the 

 waters; and all sorts of goods and chattels stacked 

 in heaps, the last remnants of many a happy home. 

 The barges I have alluded to were mostly full of the 

 aged and sick : they held up their hands in gestures 

 of despair. These poor creatures had been subsisting 

 for days on stale bread and Indian corn. We took 

 them all the fresh food we could possibly spare from 

 the steamer; but we could not have taken a tithe 

 of them on board, even had not our duty obliged us 

 to go to the rescxie of others in more urgent need. 



We pursued our course up the river, and met with 

 the same sad sight as far as the eye could reach 

 an islet of ruin here and there marking the site of 

 what was once a village or hamlet. I remarked a 

 large building sticking out of the waters, many miles 

 to the left. This turned out to be the castle of 

 Count Pallavicini, who owns 170,000 acres along 

 the Theiss valley. 



It was far on in the afternoon before we reached 

 the island where the workmen had taken refuge. 

 They were in extreme danger, for the ground was 

 melting away visibly from under them. We had not 

 come a moment too soon. They were huddled up 

 together with their spades and wheelbarrows, strong, 

 stalwart men, but powerless as infants against the all- 



