CHAPTER FORTY-NINENow, when I think about the month which followed Lajos’s wasted interview with Avram Iancu, I’m sure everyone was just going through the motions. Nobody believed any more that we could win.
Lajos grew more and more silent and grim. The light-heartedness of our journey to the western mountains vanished completely. Only with his men did he preserve the front of optimism and enthusiasm; and yet he wouldn’t give up. Wherever we were, he deliberately sought contact with Romanian units, regular and irregular, trying to establish the alliance so nearly made with Iancu. He was supported in his efforts by both Drényi and Bem, and in the end, when it became obvious that the Hungarians were hopelessly outnumbered, Bem revived the spirit of adventure by leading us into Wallachia to
