after the catastrophe of Világos he was seized and imprisoned at Olmütz.
At that time I was a lean, overgrown youngster of sixteen. I was
compelled to take charge of the household, and behave as head of the
family, for which dignity I had no inclination and but little talent.
Study was the great object of my life. After my father's release from
prison I was just of an age to decide as to my future career; but that,
at the time, was rather a difficult thing for a Hungarian youth, all
offices and positions being filled by Germans and Bohemians. I did not
wish to follow in my father's footsteps, for I saw that what with his
neglect of business matters, what with his liberality in furnishing all
patriotic enterprises out of his own pocket with the necessary means,
and in extending a wide hospitality to all political refugees, our own
circumstances were getting worse and worse, and we were deeply in debt.

So one day I took courage to speak to my father upon the subject, and
told him that I thought it was time for me to select a profession.

"Oh! you are going to hunt for some paltry office in the district
courts?" he said, with a snarl.

"No! I am going to study as a physician," I replied.

"What? Do you want to be a barber or a veterinary surgeon, or one of
those curs who pretend to look after the wounded so that they themselves
may keep out of danger when their betters fight? Imagine a scion of the
Dumanys, and the last one, too, wanting to be a sick nurse instead of a
man! I have a notion to shoot you on the spot!"

"That you can't, for our present ingenious Government takes precious
good care that such dangerous persons as my father shall not be left in