The early spring of 1867 was a season of patriotic rejoicing and feverish emotion for the Hungarian nation. For eighteen years Hungary had been dealt with as a conquered country; all the political and administrative institutions had been in abeyance, and the heel of oppression had not been lifted from her neck for a single hour. Austrian military reverses in 1866, however, compelled Kaiser Franz Josef to make large concessions to his Magyar subjects...One of the most strikingly manifest results of this transaction was the "King's" visit to Pesth in the character of a Constitutional monarch — his first appearance in the Magyar capital since the days of his boyhood. It was my special mission to witness his reception and the fetes given publicly and privately in honour of the reconciliation achieved between victors and vanquished. Pepi Hellmesberger, with his customary intelligence, had made arrangements to give two concerts during the week of national elation, knowing full well that the capital would be thronged with representative Magyars, free-handed and pleasure- loving, their pockets full of paper currency destined to be squandered in recreation and revelry. I accompanied the ''quadrilateral of harmony" under his command to Pesth, and punctually attended its first performance at the Redoute.