Page:Heinrich Karl Schmitt - The Hungarian Revolution - tr. Matthew Phipps Shiel (1918).djvu/21

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17

intended; and toward midnight the word was that the King had appoinled Kàrolyi Premier.

The crush had meanwhile become dangerous to life.

The 30th of October passed into the 31st. It was midnight. Rare clocks struck the hour.

As mementos of the decisive day I had picked up these fragments: the claw of a two-headed eagle in papier-maché, a star out of a king's crown torn down, and a feather of a German eagle in gilt tin. Against these positive gains—whose unlawfulness I am not ashamed to admit—stood a positive loss. An equally provident as precautionary revolutionist had discounted the chances of the morrow by abstracting my spectacles as well as my gloves from my coat pocket.

But the fragments have compensated me for this loss, and I should not be now ready to make an exchange.