“Who said that? Arrest him!” And Red Guards and Terrorists rushed towards the post office. If the postmaster said so, he must be arrested. But instead of answering them the postmaster called up Budapest, a Terrorist meanwhile holding one of the receivers. And along the wires the question rang to Budapest. The answer came at once: “The Government has resigned, the Soviet exists no longer. Budapest is mad with happiness.” The Terrorists glared at each other terror-stricken, but they did not arrest the postmaster; instead they went to the Directorate for instructions. But the Red offices in the town hall were empty and the comrades had disappeared. Some of them had been suddenly taken ill and had been obliged to go home. The news rushed along the darkening streets and in a few seconds it had spread all over the town. Peace on earth and good-will among men! The house became too narrow for me. So did the garden. A violin was being played next door, sobbing to the accompaniment of a piano. Then, in spite of ourselves, we all burst into the forbidden, outlawed, Hungarian hymn. We just stood and sang, and the National Anthem went up in that summer night, to the starlit firmament. Below, in the dark, on the other side of the street, noiseless dark figures slunk away. In the light streaming from open windows the neighbours stood bareheaded. They were praying too. CHAPTER XV _August 2nd._ The shepherd’s flute sounded slowly through the breaking morning. I felt disappointed; my elation had passed; my mind was still racked with anxiety. Everything seemed the same in the streets: the red flag was still floating over the county hall, the Red soldiers were leaning out of the guard-room window just as they had done during the victories of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat over the Czechs. A schoolmaster who lived near by was walking in his shabby Sunday coat towards the teachers’ Communist school. What has happened? The gates of the prison are open: are the captives afraid to leave it? A little boy took his red, white and green toy flag from above his bed and waved it out of the window. A man in the street shouted at him threateningly. About noon the wife of a neighbour came, bearing alarming news: they want to arrest Aladár Huszár. He went to the teachers’ Communist school and distributed ribbons with the national colours and made a speech to the teachers. When Comrade Weiss, the examining Commissary, arrived, the National Anthem was filling the place. In his fury Comrade Weiss tore up all the teachers’ certificates. The Jewish teachers stood by him, while the Hungarians left the place with Huszár, singing the National Anthem. Outside Red guards met them and tore the national colours off all of them. So when Aladár Huszár came home we hoisted a huge red, white and green flag on the house.