m to abandon their
intention, and instead to send him and another friend to ask for a
constitution from the Emperor. A struggle was evidently going on between
Ferdinand and his courtiers. Whenever he was strong and able to hold his
own, he was ready to make concessions. Whenever he was either ill or
still suffering from the mental effects of his illness, the Government
fell into the hands of Windischgraetz and the archdukes, and violent
measures were proposed.

Thus, though Arthaber and his friends were received courteously and
assured of the constitutional intentions of the Emperor, at eleven
o'clock on the same night there appeared a public notice declaring
Vienna in a state of siege. But even Windischgraetz seems to have been
somewhat frightened by the undaunted attitude of the people; and when he
found that his notice was torn down from the walls, and that a new
insurrection was about to break out, he sent for Professor Hye and
entreated him to preserve order. In the mean time the Emperor had to
some extent recovered his senses; and he speedily issued a promise to
summon the Estates of the German and Slavonic Provinces and the
congregations of Lombardo-Venetia.

But the people had had enough of sham constitutions; and the Emperor's
proclamation was torn down. This act, however, did not imply any
personal hostility to Ferdinand; for the belief that the Austrian
ministers were thwarting the good intentions of their master was as
deeply rooted at this time in the minds of the Viennese as was a similar
belief with regard to Pius IX and his cardinals in the minds of the
Romans; and when the Emperor drove out on March 15th, he was received
with loud cheers.

But as Ferdinand listened to these cheers he must have noticed that,
louder than the "_Es lebe der Kaiser_" of his German subjects and the
"_Slawa_" of the Bohemians, rose the sound of the Hungarian "_Eljen_."
For mingling in the crowd with the ordinary inhabitants of Vienna was
the Hungarian deputation, which had at last been permitted by the Count
Palatine to leave Presburg, and which had arrived in Vienna to demand
both freedoms that had been granted to the Germans and also a separate
responsible ministry for Hungary. They arrived in the full glory of
recent successes in the Presburg Diet; for, strengthened by the news of
the Viennese rising, Kossuth had carried, in one day, many of the
reforms for which his party had so long been contending. The last
remnants