Cold rain was falling, slanting in the wind, as I crossed the town on foot, on my way to meet the leaders of the various organisations of Protestant women. The streets were emptier than usual, and as I approached the House of Parliament I began to feel rather nervous. The friendless streets, like the lairs of cut-throats, opened darkly into the ill-lit square. I had had enough of walking and wanted to get into a tram, but as usually happens nowadays, especially when one is in a hurry, the traffic had come to a standstill and no car appeared. Several people were waiting at the stopping-place where a constable, armed with a rifle, was standing on the edge of the pavement. I looked at my watch. The tram was due at five and it was already a quarter past. The constable cursed: “We might loaf here till midnight,” said he, and shifting his rifle on his shoulder he started to walk off. “Can I go with you?” I asked him. The man nodded and, taking two steps to his one, I walked along with him. “People will think you are locking me up,” I laughed. “We are going away from the police-station,” he laughed back. “As a matter of fact it is wise of you not to walk alone here. People are often attacked. But it won’t last. The old order will be restored. We shall soon rid the country of this Galician ministry.” He began to complain bitterly, cursing the Government and all the various councils: “They ought all to be hanged, every one of them.” “Do tell me, how did you come to join the revolution?” “I? A few bribed scoundrels misled us. We didn’t know what we were doing.” When I left him I thought that the news that the police are drifting over to the counter-revolution must be true. It could hardly be otherwise, seeing that they are all brave, Hungarian, country-bred lads. When I reached the meeting of the leading Protestant ladies I told them that so long as the various Christian creeds were fighting separately we should obtain nothing, but that if they joined hands they might still save the country, and they all decided to put all self-interest aside and to save whatever might still be saved. I felt that the unity which political parties were trying vainly to attain did already exist in the women’s souls. * * * * * _January 7th-10th._ This wretched town is continually being convulsed by riots, and between the riots it howls and destroys, starves and robs. Its streets are peopled with Communist demonstrators who march about under the red flag. From the opposite direction comes a crowd of patriotic youths under the national flag, and the two crowds go for each other, tear off each other’s emblems and break each other’s heads. And while the crowd is openly turbulent, astonishing things happen in secret.