164 HUNGARIAN LITERATDRE which we are free to dispose ; it was entrusted to our keeping by the nation and we are responsible for it to our country and our consciences. 1 1 Whatever we are called upon to bear, the nation will endure in order to preserve for posterity the freedom in· heritcd from our an cestors. We shall suffer without desponden cy, as our ancestors suffered, to preserve the country's rights, for what superior strength may take from us may be brought back by good fortune, but what we voluntarily surrender through fear of suffering is h ard to regain, and the issue remains doubtful. Th e nation will be patient, hoping for a better future and trusting to the righteousness of its cause." The Austrian authorities answered this second address by dissolving Parliament. Deák, on learning their inten tion, suggested that the nation should prociaim that, although Parliament could not oppose this act of violence but could merely protest agaiost it, it was resolved to cling to its laws and to consider every breach of them an offence agai ost the constitution. u Our only weapons," he said, 11 are the legality and the justic;e of our cause, and they support us agaiost armed force. It is an ancient belief, and one which has never proved illusory, that truth always prevails in the end, and in this con viction lies our hope. If we would walk in safety we must under no circumstances abandon our laws, for they are the only secure territory on which we may stand without any armed force, and even in defiance of such force. Into the solitude from which I stepped fOJ·th I now retire with the clear conviction that we in Parliament have done our duty to our country, our constituents and our conscien ces, and that the example set by Parliament will be followed by our courts of law, and by ali our
