A dog barked, and all round other dogs responded. “They are coming!” The anxious moments passed. The dogs were silent again and in the cool dawn the first cock crowed, followed at intervals by others. It reminded us of clocks striking the hour in succession. The sun rose. The Terrorists have not come. Who can say why? The St. Bartholomew’s night of Balassagyarmat has not come off. * * * * * _August 5th._ This morning we learnt that before starting on their plundering expedition the Terrorists found a supply of champagne in the cellars of one of the hotels. They got so drunk that they could not even stand. So a few hundred bottles of champagne saved the town. Comrade Szijgyártó was the only man who remained sober. It appears that he received an ambiguous message from the Budapest Workmen’s Government and in the course of the night he sent his detectives out to find whither he could escape. When his men returned they reported that the roads to the villages were guarded by armed men, so he was obliged to wait till the Lenin Boys had slept off their drunkenness. But meanwhile the old police of Balassagyarmat had assembled. Now people are talking of the Terrorists’ intention to escape by train, but the police will disarm them at the station. Everybody was out of doors. Here and there a young man in a leather coat, with a brand new hat on his head, appeared, looking innocently at the crows. Mrs. Huszár noticed it too and we looked at each other. “They have changed their garb....” Suddenly policemen, railwaymen, guards with white flowers, officials, women and boys began rushing towards the station. The whole street was running and its rush was watched from both sides by the posted horrors of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The Red soldiers, wild sailors, half-naked workmen wading in blood, shapeless female monsters. Yesterday they were all alive; now, as I passed them quickly they receded on the walls beside me as the phantoms of a terrible past. A youth came running from the direction of the county hall shouting at the top of his voice. “The Lenin Boys have escaped!” While people were waiting for them at the station they fled with their booty from the other end of the town. People swore and angry voices shouted: “Scoundrels! But they will be caught!”