When Korniloff came to himself, and was able to take account of his
surroundings, he found himself in a hospital, being treated for his
serious wounds. He was a prisoner of the Austrians, as were the few
of his men who had been left alive when he himself was taken. But he
breathed a sigh of relief, for the gallant Forty-eighth Division had
been saved by his devotion and the sacrifice of his splendid little
band.
Dreary months of illness and convalescence passed by. At last the
general was well enough to be moved from the hospital, and his captors
conveyed him to a safer and more suitable habitation. As a prisoner of
mark, a residence was chosen for him at the château of Esterhazy, at
Eisenstadt, in the Sopron Department in Hungary. This was the famous
castle, built in 1683, where Haydn was _Kapell-meister_ to the Prince
Esterhazy of the time.
Korniloff made up his mind that Eisenstadt should not long have him as
a guest, and with increasing health and strength he set about finding a
means of escape. First of all he made friends with the men who acted as
his guardians, and they were flattered at the notice taken of them by
the redoubtable Russian general, whose fame had spread over the Empire.
He took a great interest in these common soldiers; he talked to them of
their lives, their homes, the fights they had been in; and learned from
them a few words and expressions in Magyar.
Now, one of these Austrian soldiers (as General Korniloff afterwards
related to the delegates of the Czech Brigade, when they welcomed him
in Kiev and congratulated him on his escape) happened to be a Slovack.
What more natural than that he should sympathize with the prisoner
and agree to help him to regain his liberty? In exactly what way he
did this, no one knows save Korniloff himself, and as regards such
points he is naturally discretion itself. Anyway, one morning, as he
was returning to his apartment from the park in which he was allowed
to stroll, he passed a guardroom, the door of which was open. On a
table just inside lay a private soldier's uniform, with forage cap and
everything complete. No one was in sight, though he heard somewhere in
the rear the voices of men at their morning tasks. It was the work of
a second to slip in, snatch up the kit, hide it under his cloak, and
hasten to his own room. Had it been placed there, by arrangement, by
the Slovack? Presumably, considering what followed next.
For two days after that the general kept to his apartment, suffering
from a fictitious cold. He feared that inquiries might be made as to
the missing garments, but to his heartfelt relief he heard nothing
further about the matter. As there was always a considerable coming
and going of soldiers, he trusted that during the two days he remained
invisible there might be some new arrivals who would not be familiar
with his person when the time came for action.