Page:Heinrich Karl Schmitt - The Hungarian Revolution - tr. Matthew Phipps Shiel (1918).djvu/57

 nected past and present; a warm emotion possessed all, and I saw people with hard features whose lip quiveredI, as a Swiss, the free citizen of a free State, understood well the emotion which moved all these, who out of the darkness of an old century suddenly were stepping into the light of Democracy.

How well had all this come to pass, how much of incredibly noble and steadfast will was involved in it, how much anxious shrinking from the least Too-much among the crowd—how upon all lay Pain and Joy—welded in a single embrace, how out of a thousand dumb throats went up appeals to the Almighty, and how with the tumult of joy mingled for seconds the intense suspense of the listener who hearkens for tidings from afar—how trembled the million-fold heart of Budapest in its struggle to express the moment, the daythe Future

Leaning on a pillar, I saw all this pass before me. I only dimly recall the details of what, as a whole, will never pass from my memory. Through sudden cries, through music and song, and gay men, and weary-grown thoughts, I made my way through to a better hope for the People, that is wondrous good in its heart and soul, that unspoiled and staunch and simple stands by its kind, that haggles in words, but is bountiful at heart, as once only sovereigns could beAh, there appeared to me desert-sands, and then hill-lands alternated with blessed cornfields, glad streams wound through green regions, wine and corn smiled along the ways, and a hot sun blessed the midday.

A stream of men brought me back, lost in thought, to the day.

It was the 16th of November of the year of grace 1918.