ith.

There was a pervading, anxious hush--at least what stood very well for
a hush in that House. It was believed by many that the Opposition was
cowed, and that there would be no more obstruction, no more noise. That
was an error.

Presently the President entered by the distant door to the right,
followed by Vice-President Fuchs, and the two took their way down past
the Polish benches toward the tribune. Instantly the customary storm of
noises burst out, and rose higher and higher, and wilder and wilder, and
really seemed to surpass anything that had gone before it in that place.
The President took his seat and begged for order, but no one could
hear him. His lips moved--one could see that; he bowed his body forward
appealingly, and spread his great hand eloquently over his breast--one
could see that; but as concerned his uttered words, he probably could
not hear them himself. Below him was that crowd of two dozen Socialists
glaring up at him, shaking their fists at him, roaring imprecations
and insulting epithets at him. This went on for some time. Suddenly
the Socialists burst through the gates and stormed up through the
ministerial benches, and a man in a red cravat reached up and snatched
the documents that lay on the President's desk and flung them abroad.
The next moment he and his allies were struggling and fighting with the
half-dozen uniformed servants who were there to protect the new gates.
Meantime a detail of Socialists had swarmed up the side steps and
overflowed the President and the Vice, and were crowding and shouldering
and shoving them out of the place. They crowded them out, and down the
steps and across the House, past the Polish benches; and all about them
swarmed hostile Poles and Czechs, who resisted them. One could see fists
go up and come down, with other signs and shows of a heady fight; then
the President and the Vice disappeared through the door of entrance, and
the victorious Socialists turned and marched back, mounted the tribune,
flung the President's bell and his remaining papers abroad, and then
stood there in a compact little crowd, eleven strong, and held the place
as if it were a fortress. Their friends on the floor were in a frenzy of
triumph, and manifested it in their deafening way. The whole House was
on its feet, amazed and wondering.

It was an astonishing situation, and imposingly dramatic. Nobody had
looked for this. The unexpected had happened. What next? But there
can