When morning came the Czechs had stealthily, quietly evaporated from the hills, fleeing before a miserable handful of Reds. They are the same Czechs who five months ago descended from the mountains of Zólyom and took undisputed possession of Pressburg and Kassa, impregnable Komárom, a third of our country. How they would have run if they had had to face the hussars of Limanova and the territorials of Gorlice! But Károlyi’s minister of war did not want to see any soldiers, the same Linder who recently, at a review, exclaimed to comrades Böhm, Pogány and Landler in front of their armed servants: “You see we had to break up the old army to create this.” Two towns and all the heights above them have been taken by the Reds, who have captured machine-guns and two heavy guns. The Czechs were surprised in their sleep and fled half-naked, all the prisoners being taken in their night clothes. Peasants’ carts laden with Czech uniforms and boots rattled over the bridges all night. I could not sleep: I thought of the people on the other bank of the Ipoly, whom I do not know and yet for whom I fear. When they wake they will find the train of the plunderers which brings the awful Red epidemic of tyranny and terrorist tribunals. And when it comes back it will carry away hostages.... The clock struck. Half-past one.... A long train whistle; buffers knocking together; coupling-chains clanging in the dark. Fetters and skeleton keys.... May the Lord have mercy on us all! * * * * * _June 1st._ A drum is being beaten in the village and the sound echoes from street to street. The Revolutionary Cabinet has decreed general conscription, and a small minority of alien race disposes of the nation’s blood by simple decree. I shuddered. Henceforth they are going to force everybody to take up arms for them against himself. An aeroplane flew over us. “An Italian machine,” said someone in front of the house. The airman was reconnoitring the Ipoly valley—eyes from another world looking down on us, indifferently, without sympathy. To him we appear only as black spots, swarming ants. Does he know that the ants are suffering, that the ant-hill has been kicked to pieces and that strange vermin have invaded it? He flew on—a dragonfly passing across the prisoner’s window.