Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/294

less so until the spring. And even if we had wanted to do so in vain, the internal and the external fronts would have collapsed before the spring, and we, the responsible personalities, would justly have ended on the gallows. The revolutionary party began to increase still further. The unmerciful logic of the laws of the world's history made themselves felt once more. Successful violence can never arrest its progress halfway. Having reigned lawfully for one day, the Cabinet of Karolyi became revolutionary. It will remain a sad and unforgettable memory to think of the night during which I was most urgently summoned to Schönbrunn by His Majesty. For a long time I was unable to obtain a vehicle, and I arrived late in the Imperial Palace. The brother of the Emperor met me half-way down the Mariahilferstrasse; Archduke Max had come to meet me with a motor in order to accelerate my journey. When I arrived in the Palace, the household urged me to hurry. I rushed upstairs, and I arrived through open doors in the study of His Majesty. The ruler stood at the telephone and handed me his second receiver. The Government of Budapest demanded that he should abdicate, and told him that, if he did not do so, bloodshed would be involved, he would be pursued and murdered, and not only he the King, but al.so the Archduke Joseph and the Ministers. His Majesty quite rightly did not want to hear anything of abdication, and did not wish to lose his crown on acount of a street revolution, seeing that he was tied to the crown by oath. The King of Hungary can