The British plan to hold peace talks in London was about to fall through. Prince Schwarzenberg hoped with all his heart that the Austrian Empire could once again take the lead.
However, this was hardly a good time for the Austrian Empire. Franz was still wearing down the Hungarians' will to resist.
The Austrian army swept downstream along the Danube, its advance unstoppable. The Hungarians were routed in every battle, leaving the ground strewn with corpses.
Yet, strangely, the Austrian army failed to seize the chance to pursue its victories. Lajos Kossuth always managed to use his extraordinary talent to raise another army and slow the Austrian advance.
But no matter how many miracles occurred, the Hungarians' flesh and blood could not stop Austria's iron army.
During this time, Lajos Kossuth had recruited at least a million men, but few ever returned from the battlefield alive.
Unlike the Austrian Empire's usual practice of simply releasing prisoners, this was a civil war. Executing captured traitors outright would have been entirely defensible.
Franz was still fairly merciful. As long as they admitted their guilt, they could escape the death penalty.
The prisoners had to confess all their sins. Some who realized they had escaped death were genuinely remorseful, while others, emboldened by their reprieve, began boasting of their glorious deeds.
The latter were hauled off to old mines in the empire that had yet to be made safe. They would spend twenty years in the sunless depths, and if they survived, Franz would pardon them.
Still, only a few would end up in the mines. Most people would not be so mad as to publicly confess to crimes like murder, arson, rape, and looting.
The journalists and historians would help fill in the blanks for these fellows.
Some others, infected by the