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94 house, when suddenly twelve lancers drew up before it, took Kazinczy prisoner, and carried him to Buda in chains. The death sentence was passed upon all of them. Martinovics and the other leaders of the conspiracy were executed, but Kazinczy was spared, and his sentence commuted to imprisonment.

For some time he was confined in the fortress of Spielberg, near Brünn, which afterwards witnessed the sufferings of Silvio Pellico. Later he was taken to Kufstein, in the Tyrol, and to Munkács, where, some years later, Ypsilanti, the Greek patriot, was imprisoned. For some months he was denied writing materials. He therefore wrote with his own blood, or with the rust of his chains dissolved in water. At length, after a confine­ment lasting six and a half years, he was set at liberty. It was during the long years of solitude in prison that his schemes for the reform of the language ripened in his mind, and the moment he was free he went home to his small estate in the country, and commenced to labour for their accomplishment. His aim was twofold: he desired to raise the level of literary taste, and to embellish the language. He translated a great many of the master­ pieces of foreign literature and began to write critical essays on the works of contemporary Hungarian authors. In a very little while he became the highest literary authority. All the writers appealed to him for advice and criticism. As he lived in the country, his activity involved a great deal of correspondence, and he is the most voluminous letter writer among Hungarian men of letters. Except Voltaire, no literary man has written more letters than he. The collection of them, shortly to be published by the Hungarian Academy, will form twenty-five to thirty large volumes.