y through the crowd, and were even pressed back
out of the Herren Gasse.

The desire now arose for better protection for the people; and a
deputation tried to persuade the burgomaster of Vienna to call out the
City Guard. Czapka, the burgomaster, was, however, a mere tool of the
Government; and he declared that the Archduke Albert, as
Commander-in-Chief of the Army, had alone the power of calling out the
guard. The Archduke Albert was, perhaps next to Louis, the most
unpopular of the royal house. He indignantly refused to listen to any
demands of the people, and, hastening to the spot, rallied the soldiers
and led them to the open space at the corner of the Herren Gasse, which
is known as the "Freyung." The inner circle of Vienna was at this time
surrounded with walls, outside of which were the large suburbs in which
chiefly workmen lived.

The students seem already to have gained some sympathy with the workmen;
and for the previous two years the discontent caused by the sufferings
of the poorer classes had been taking a more directly political turn.
Several of the workmen had pressed in with the students in the morning
into the inner town, and some big men, with rough darned coats and dirty
caps over their ears, were seen clenching their fists for the fight. The
news quickly spread to the suburbs that the soldiers were about to
attack the people. Seizing long poles and any iron tools which came to
hand, the workmen rushed forward to the gates of the inner town. In one
district they found the town gates closed against them, and cannon
placed on the bastion near; but in others the authorities were
unprepared; and the workmen burst into the inner town, tearing down
stones and plaster to throw at the soldiers.

In the mean time the representatives of the Estates had reached the
Castle, and were trying to persuade the authorities to yield to the
demands of the people. Metternich persisted in believing that the whole
affair was moved by foreign influence, and particularly by Italians and
Swiss; and he desired that the soldiers should gather in the Castle, and
that Prince Windischgraetz should be appointed commandant of the city.
Alfred Windischgraetz was a Bohemian nobleman who had previously been
known chiefly for his strong aristocratic feeling, which he was said to
have embodied in the expression "Human beings begin at barons." But he
had been marked out by Metternich as a man of vigor and decision who
might be trusted