Anyone who had a uniform preferred to take it off and burn it, or maybe dye it a different colour. Senior officials poisoned themselves, lower-ranking civil servants threw themselves out of the window or slit their wrists. It was the start of no-man’s-time; laws had been overruled, yet no one was responsible for anything. Nothing belonged to anyone anymore, unless they were sitting on it. No one was responsible, no one was ensured protection. The old power had run away, the new one hadn’t yet arrived; only the noise of artillery suggested that it would come eventually. Even the most
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