26
But order was nowhere seriously disturbed; only from the outer districts came in news of some plunder.
At an office I heard of the setting up of Soldiers' Councils in Vienna, and the rapid spread of the movement of revolt.
***
In the afternoon spread, too, the news that the Government, Kàrolyi's new Cabinet, had asked of Italy an immediate armistice. I heard privately that this step was against the views of the High-Command in Baden, which fought to prevent the Hungarian Government acting on its own score. It will be ascribed to the absolute energy of Kàrolyi that the matter of the armistice was forced forward, by which means much inflammable matter in the people was kept under, for the news of the movement toward peace had a very tranquilising effect. It was not then, indeed, known—at least not widely—how matters actually stood at the front; but that proved useful in accelerating some of the events of the the revolution.
The constitution of the Cabinet was now known. It sounded responsible. Kàrolyi had placed the oath in the hands of the Archduke Josef, as representative of the King. The last phase in the monarchical life of the State. . . .
The National Council was the effective authority of the Government. The Revolution was quite frankly and obviously republican, and nobody was inclined to think even remotely of a government with a king dragged in. The King, even as a man, had put himself out of court, since at the time of the great crisis he had abandoned Budapest and betaken himself to Vienna, on the pretext of solving grave problems—in reality for the obvious reason that the ever faithful Vienna offered move security in the face of the revolutionary trend of events. . . .Well, this calculation, too, resembled so many others in this war: it, too, was astray, was false.
The National Council had transferred its temporary quarters from the Hotel Astoria to the Stadthaus. In memory of the Revolution, the Astoria has since been called the Hotel Republic.
The National Council immediately took in hand the special problems of the moment. The swiftest
