Bem and the few remaining high-ranking members of the Hunnic Empire fled for their lives. After hearing that Debrecen had fallen and Lajos Kossuth was dead, the Hunnic Empire's remaining forces also swallowed their pride and surrendered one after another.
As for the bandits who had followed Kossuth's example and proclaimed themselves emperors, they too abdicated and abolished their states in droves. Those who had no time to abdicate either watched their followers scatter like monkeys when the tree fell, or had their own men cut off their heads and present them to Austrian officials as proof of their sincerity.
After Kossuth's defeat and death, no force remained anywhere in the Austrian Empire that could threaten Franz's rule.
Besides, far too many people had died over the past year and more.
Of Hungary's 550,000 registered nobles, 498,000 had been struck off the rolls. Apart from those who had taken part in the rebellion, most nobles who had stayed out of it but failed to leave Hungary in time had also met a gruesome end.
Some fence-sitters had neither wanted to join the rebellion nor side with the Austrian Empire, and had instead chosen exile abroad.
Franz did not object to their choice, but he had no intention of returning their land and property.
Commoners could remain neutral, and serfs could remain neutral, but nobles who had enjoyed the Empire's privileges for centuries had no right to choose neutrality.
Franz had merely confiscated their property, stripped them of their noble privileges, and revoked their citizenship. That was already exceedingly merciful.
The loyalist Hungarian nobles had also suffered devastating losses. Austria had not been fighting on only one front, after all, but the bulk of their casualties had still come from Kossuth's purge.
The nobles who remained were already little different from