CHAPTER FIVEThe Madonna of the Coal Cellar
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“Rise up, Magyars! Your country calls!
The time is here! Now or never!
Shall we be slaves or shall we be free?”
– Sándor Petőfi
“FREE!” the crowd roared in Budapest’s Petőfi Square. Thousands swelled the square, banners in hand, students arm in arm, passersby, young and old, joined them, some wearing light work clothes and that perennial beret, not much protection against the chill October air but better than nothing. Children perched on the shoulders of a father or a relative to get a better view of the man reciting the fiery verses. The man stood on a makeshift platform in front of the statue of Sándor Petőfi who with his “Rise Up, Magyars” poem had sparked the 1848 revolution against the Hapsburgs only to fall in battle at the feet of R
