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AN OUTLAW'S DIARYCHAPTER IOctober 31st, 1918.The town was preparing for the Day of the Dead,and white chrysanthemums were being sold at thestreet corners. A mad, black crowd carried theflowers with it. This year there will not be any forthe cemeteries the :quick adorn themselves withthat which belongs to the dead.Flowers of the graveyard, symbols of decay, whitechrysanthemums. A town beflowered like a grave,under a hopeless sky. Such is Budapest on the 31stof October, 1918.Between the rows of houses shabby, drenched flagswave on their staffs, and the pavement is coveredwith dirt. Torn bits of paper, pieces of posters,crushed white flowers mixed in the mud. The townis as filthy and gloomy as a foul tavern after a night'sdebauch.This night Count Michael Karolyi's NationalCouncil has grasped the reins of power.So low have we fallen !Anger and inexpressiblebitterness assailed me. Against my will, with anirresistible obsession, my eyes were reading overand over again the inscriptions on strips of red, white,and green paper which were pasted on the shopwindows"in unceasing repetition : Long live theHungarian National Council" . . . Who has wantedthis council ? Who has asked for it ?Why do theystand it?Count Julius Andrassy, the Monarchy's Ministerfor Foreign Affairs in Vienna, was clamouring desperatelyfor a separate peace. The thought of it raised