Everything seemed to be collapsing round us, even that which had till now remained standing, and it was as though the weight of it fell on us and buried us under its ruin. It seemed incomprehensible that the lamp still stood there, where it had been before, and the chairs, the couch, the cupboards.... Then I saw my mother’s hands as they clasped one another spasmodically in her lap. I heard her voice, which sounded as if it came struggling up among the ruins, with infinite pain: “If the curse of an old woman carries any weight, I curse them!” CHAPTER X. _November 21st._ To-day the newspapers are full of the complaints of Károlyi’s government. The government has sent protesting telegrams to the Allies, the Czechs, the Roumanians. It appeals to the armistice concluded with the Allied armies, to the Wilsonian principles, to world-saving pacifism. It clamours for justice, help, food, and coal. And Károlyi threatens that “if the Allies do not want to see the formation of ‘green’ forces—he does not mention the ‘red’ because he has already formed those—”if the Allies do not wish that this part of Europe should be given up to plunder, incendiarism and robbery, it is the eleventh hour....” But the Allies are well aware that Károlyi’s rule has already achieved all this, and they don’t trouble to answer. On the other hand Kramarz, with whom Károlyi had conspired against the interests of his country during the war answers in the name of the Czechs, haughtily, derisively: “The Allies have decided that the territories inhabited by the Slovaks shall form part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, and not of the Hungarian state. Consequently Hungary cannot conclude an armistice for the Slovak parts, as these have already been incorporated into Czecho-Slovakia.” That is his answer, and the King of Roumania’s answer is an appeal to his army: “Soldiers. The long expected hour has come. The Allies have crossed the Danube and it is time that we should rise to arms.... Our brethren in Bukovina and Transylvania call us to the last battle. Victory is ours. Forward! God is with us.” The armistice of Belgrade makes all our enemies see red. Károlyi’s government has opened the door to the Serbians, and the rest of them are breaking it in for themselves; they come aflame with hatred, and come incessantly. I feel like death, and giddy with rage, when I read Károlyi’s speeches. “Confidence is due to the government,” says he—and he defends the Socialists: “Let nobody presume to say that they are unpatriotic, that the fate of their country is not dear to their hearts ...” and the radicals: “In Arad, Minister Jászi has fought to the last gasp for the integrity of Hungarian territory....” In short, he defends everybody who does not defend the country.