Page:Heinrich Karl Schmitt - The Hungarian Revolution - tr. Matthew Phipps Shiel (1918).djvu/45

 pest to take their part in the joy of the Revolution. They wandered through the city, limited before the head-quarters of the Bourgeois Radical Party, sang some songsand dispersed peaceably.

It was a panic rumour which had some foundation in fact: but how the few Russians became whole divisions is still a riddle. Either it was that the agitated mind of the people by itself magnified the danger, or there were perhaps "order-loving" force; at work, who may have hoped that such a signal might create a possibility, by quick action, of plundering shops.

In the National Council, where I spoke of this matter about ten o'clock, reigned the gravest unrest and excitement. All sorts of "actions" were scented, suspected. But here also we succeeded soon in mobilizing adequate forces to contradict quickly the panic rumours, spread for the most part by honest patriots among themselves, and these bearers of enlightenment were able to lift the palsy which seemed to have seized the city.

During this tumult, besides, the completest discipline was maintained in a military sense. Officers and men, spurred by a like free-will, understood one another excellently, and even if armed masses of Russians had run loose upon Budapest, there is no doubt that militia, volunteers and regulars could have thrown back even considerable forces.

The panic rumour furnished the comforting evidence that the capital could not easily become the cock-pit of civil strifes; it was a question here of striving for tranquility, for order, for the security of life and property.

For this fight the people of Budapest was ready, armed, and inured.

After the denial of the rumour, the people revived visibly, the cafés up to the early closing hour were fuller than could have been thought possible, and the gipsies played, there was singing—only drink failed all. For the strictest prohibition by the Government let no drop of alcohol flow.

And that had failed now for a whole dayit failed all; me, too.