on Fischhof showed himself, with Montecuccoli, on the
balcony; and the President promised that the Estates would send a
deputation of their own to the Emperor to express to him the wishes of
the people. He therefore invited the crowd to choose twelve men, to be
present at the deliberations of the Estates during the drawing up of the
petition. While the election of these twelve was still going on, a
Hungarian student appeared with the German translation of Kossuth's
speech. The Hungarian's voice being too weak to make itself heard, he
handed the speech to a Tyrolese student, who read it to the crowd. The
allusion to the need of a constitution was received with loud applause,
and so also was the expression of the hopes for good from the Archduke
Francis Joseph.

But however much the reading of the speech had encouraged the hopes of
the crowd, it had also given time for the Estates to decide on a course
without waiting for the twelve representatives of the people; and,
before the crowd had heard the end of Kossuth's speech the reading was
interrupted by a message from the Estates announcing the contents of
their proposed petition. The petition had shrunk to the meagre demand
that a report on the condition of the state bank should be laid before
the Estates, and that a committee should be chosen from Provincial
Assemblies to consider timely reforms and to take a share in
legislation.

The feeble character of the proposed compromise roused a storm of scorn
and rage; and a Moravian student tore the message of the Estates into
pieces. The conclusion of Kossuth's speech roused the people to still
further excitement; and, with cries for a free constitution, for union
with Germany, and against alliance with Russia, the crowd once more
broke into the Assembly.

One of the leading students then demanded of Montecuccoli whether this
was the whole of the petition they intended to send to the Emperor.
Montecuccoli answered that the Estates had been so disturbed in their
deliberations that they had not been able to come to a final decision.
But he declared that they desired to lay before the Emperor all the
wishes of the people.

Again the leaders of the crowd repeated, in slightly altered form, the
demands originally formulated by Fischhof. At last, after considerable
discussion, Montecuccoli was preparing to start for the Castle at the
head of the Estates when a regiment of soldiers arrived, but they were
unable to make their wa