p barricades, and a
fierce struggle ensued.

On the 14th the cry for complete freedom of the press became louder and
more prominent; and the insurgents were encouraged by the first news of
the Vienna rising. The other parts of the kingdom now joined in the
movement. On the 14th came deputations from the Rhine Province, who
demanded in a threatening manner the extension of popular liberties. On
the 16th came the more important news that Posen and Silesia were in
revolt. Mieroslawsky, who had been one of the leaders of the Polish
movement of 1846, had gained much popularity in Berlin; and he seemed
fully disposed to combine the movement for the independence of Posen
with that for the freedom of Prussia, much in the same way as Kossuth
had combined the cause of Hungarian liberty with the demand for an
Austrian constitution. In Silesia, no doubt, the terrible famine of the
previous year, and the remains of feudal oppression, had sharpened the
desire for liberty; and closely following on the news of these two
revolts came clearer accounts of the Viennese rising and the happy
tidings of the fall of Metternich.

The King of Prussia promised, on the arrival of this news, to summon the
Assembly for April 2d; and two days later he appeared on the balcony of
his palace and declared his desire to change Germany from an alliance of
states into a federal state.

But the suspicions of the people had now been thoroughly aroused; and on
March 18th, the very day on which the King made this declaration, fresh
deputations came to demand liberties from him; and when he appealed to
them to go home his request was not complied with. The threatening
attitude of the soldiers, and the recollection of their violence on the
preceding days, had convinced the people that until part at least of the
military force was removed they could have no security for liberty.

The events of the day justified their belief; for, while some one was
reading aloud to the people the account of the concessions recently made
by the King, the soldiers suddenly fired upon them, and the crowd fled
in every direction. They fled, however, soon to rally again; barricades
were once more thrown up; the Poles of Posen flocked in to help their
friends, and the black, red, and gold flag of Germany was displayed.
Women joined the fight at the barricades; and on the 19th some of the
riflemen whom the King had brought from Neuchatel refused to fire upon
the people. Then the King