appear before the old Emperor during the war. Bowed and broken, without will and without strength, he sat upon his chair. In full possession of his power of judgment, he recognized plainly the enormous responsibility that rested upon him, and he knew that he had to solve a problem which demanded Napoleonic powers, as every final decision rested with him, and as every living power had been placed in his hands. Anyone who has witnessed this spectacle and who knew the difficulties of our internal politics, who was aware of the dangers of a European war, could not believe for one instant that the Monarchy would have entered into this combat if she had not regarded it as inevitable.
In spite of the situation that has been sketched above, the enthusiasm was general at the beginning of the war, and people were dominated by the admirable determination to leave all internal quarrels on one side and to combine all forces in the interests of the war. The tragedy of Serajevo had made the danger apparent which surrounded the Monarchy. We, the leaders of the Hungarian opposition, decided instantly to cease our oppositional activity and to support the Government. In my opinion the same procedure should have been observed as was observed everywhere else: a new Government should have been formed out of a coalition of all parties—but this did not occur. Tisza thought the continuation of the homogeneous Government which was subjected to his leadership more important than the Parliamentary peace and the concentration of all forces.
If the war had had similar results to the campaigns of
