‘The crowd … took Károlyi not towards the usual exit but in the direction of the warehouses. The people were so overexcited that they had not noticed that they had carried Mihály Károlyi into a blind alley that ran between the warehouses and Váci Street and which was closed by a tall iron gate that was locked.’ To turn back was impossible. The only way was to clamber over it and squeeze through the iron spikes on top. Mihály Károlyi scrambled through, but no one else. He was then carried off by the crowd milling around outside ‘with much dangerous jostling and pushing … like a piece of driftwood tossed about by chance, he was propelled forward sideways by the force of that determined crowd.’

This happened on Sunday.

On Monday came the news that discussions were being held by Archduke Joseph in his capacity of homo regis (literally ‘the king’s man’): a thankless task that, with real self-sacrifice, he had accepted at this late hour in an attempt to make peace between the rival factions in the face of such heightened passions.

We discussed all this on Monday evening, weighing what seemed the most likely outcome; and also the most unlikely. At about ten o’clock we were just mulling over whether János Hadik had any chance of forming a government (an idea of which most of us had only just heard) and also the idea of nominating Archduke Joseph as Palatine (viceroy) when a waiter came in to call Andor Miklós to the telephone, saying it was very, very urgent.

Miklós left us at once. In a few moments he was back, unusually pale.

‘There is a battle raging at the Chain Bridge,’ he said. ‘The men were ordered to shoot … many dead and wounded!’ and left to hurry back to his editorial desk.

Jenö Heltai was with us, and we decided to see for ourselves what was happening.

Everything was quiet outside the Kaszino. There was nobody about in front of the National Council’s headquarters in the Hotel Astoria just across the road where, on previous evenings, crowds had gathered to listen to speeches from the Council’s spokesmen. We started off briskly towards the Chain Bridge, passing the Town Hall, down Bécsi Street and Harmincad Street. The streets were empty, and the only sounds we heard were our own footsteps. Then suddenly, at the corner of Gisella (now Vorosmarty) Square, we met a huge crowd. The whole square was packed with men, shoulder to shoulder. The reason we had noticed nothing and made this so unexpected was their total silence. There was something essentially dramatic and sinister about this mute voiceless multitude, something far more menacing than if they had all been shouting and noisy. There must have been several thousand men gathered there – and not a sound. Every window was dark except, far away at the corner of Váci Street, there were lights in the windows of the Károlyi party headquarters. Through those windows the outlines of men moving to and fro could vaguely be seen, and maybe some speeches were being made there, but this I do not know for certain as no sound reached us. We asked some men standing near us what had happened, but they did not answer. They just shrugged and turned away.

Then we decided to go to Jószef Square.

Only a few steps from there two lovers stood entwined, caring nothing for what was going on around them, perhaps even finding a good opportunity amid the general chaos. Oblivious to their surroundings and clinging tightly together they went on kissing happily.

Heltai laughed. ‘That’s Budapest for you!’ he said as we hurried on.

On the far side of Jószef Square a barricade had been built, and the soldiers manning it would not let us through to the Chain Bridge. They were from a Bosnian regiment, and we heard later that they had been sent to replace the 32nd Infantry who had had orders to close Dorottya Street and Vigado Square but who had not only let the demonstrators though without a word of protest but also, in good part, left their own ranks and joined them. Now, however, every street leading to the Danube was closed by the loyal Bosnian regiment. Here again not a voice was to be heard, not even a command. The only sound was the rhythmic beat of the soldiers’ iron-studded boots. That dark night was the last occasion when anyone was to hear the measured tread of the Imperial Habsburg army on the march.

Notes

4. Károlyi’s version of this visit to Vienna and of the events which follow is significantly different in many respects: see Memoirs of Michael Károlyi (Jonathan Cape, London, 1956).

5. Bánffy is here quoting from the account published by the Budapest newspaper Az Est.

Chapter Two

It was only on the following day that we learned everything that had happened at the Chain Bridge.

From early in the morning Archduke Joseph had spent the day in his palace in the fortress of Buda, negotiating with various politicians in an attempt to form a government. Mihály Károlyi was due to join him in the evening.