[136] He was then French Minister at Berlin.
[137] Herr von Radowitz was then sent to Vienna to try and arrange some co-operation between the two courts in view of the revolutionary storm which seemed to be threatening. Prince William, who had been governor of Mayence from 1844, returned to his post in view of the course of events.
[138] In the confusion which prevailed during the unhappy day of February 24, at Paris, when every one fled as best he could, the Duchesse d'Orléans and her two children, after escaping the perils which they had run at the Chamber of Deputies, took refuge with M. Jules de Lasteyrie at the Hôtel des Invalides, which they left secretly during the night. From Paris to Aix la Chapelle, the Princess travelled in a public conveyance accompanied by the Marquis de Montesquiou and M. de Mornay. She then took the railway to Cologne, and after spending the night at Deutz, she went to Ems to ask refuge of the Grand Duke of Weimar who placed the castle of Eisenach at her disposal. It was not until June 1849 that she went to England to visit the Royal Family at St. Leonards, near Hastings, where the King and Queen had gone in view of their health.
[139] The old district of Franconia, that is to say, part of Baden, Wurtemberg and Hesse, was then the scene of a movement akin to the Jacquerie: the peasants rose in a body and committed deplorable excesses; castles were burnt and plundered, and several landowners were killed or barbarously ill-treated. On the 10th of March serious disturbances broke out at Cassel under the pretext that the newly nominated ministers were the objects of popular disapproval. The arsenal was stormed and plundered of weapons; resistance was offered to the troops; the Life Guards retreated, but the populace held the barracks until the regiment was disbanded and the officers put upon trial.
[140] On March 13 a formidable insurrection broke out at Vienna: the population rose in a body; the railways were torn up and the air resounded with cries, "The constitution and the liberty of the Press.">[
[141] Prince Adam Czartoryski, who retained his delusions, was inspired with fresh hopes by the disturbances which prevailed on every side, and from which the Poles were trying to derive some advantage for themselves. The Prince arrived at Berlin where disorder was general and proclaimed with considerable effrontery that Lord Palmerston and M. de Lamartine had promised to support him by land and sea, if Prussia would declare the re-establishment of Poland. The presence of Prince Czartoryski at Berlin was regarded with such disfavour by the Emperor of Russia, that he informed his Minister, Baron Meyendorff, that he would be withdrawn from Poland, if the Prince prolonged his stay in that capital.
[142] On April 2, 1848, at midday the second general Diet was opened at Berlin in one Chamber without any distinction of rank or representation. The commissary of this Diet, Herr von Camphausen, the President of the Council, accompanied by all the Ministers, opened the Diet in the King's name. He delivered a speech, at the conclusion of which he brought forward proposals for a law concerning elections for the purpose of bringing into force upon a wide basis the constitution which the King had granted to his people after the events of March 18.
[143] After a collision between the troops and the people at Vienna on March 13, 1848, and after the insurrection in Venice, Prince Metternich, who was too prone to overrate his capacity for resistance, was forced by an infuriated mob to resign and to flee from Austria with his wife. At first they stayed in Dresden, but the unpopularity of the Prince was so great that they were obliged to proceed to Holland and thence to England. In 1849 they settled at Brussels.
[144] This assembly was spontaneously convoked at Frankfort to provide the country with a centre of action in case the Princes declined to support the movement for amalgamation which was then in progress among the Germanic races. It was dissolved on April 2, after securing from the Princes at the Diet the promise that a German parliament should meet. A commission, however, was appointed by the army consisting of fifty members, to secure the execution of this promise, and these members were ordered to convoke a national parliament within one month, assuming that a parliament had not been already elected by the different states.
[145] The news of the Paris Revolution had produced a great sensation in the Grand Duchy of Posen. A revolt broke out at Posen itself, where Mieroslawski, who was released from prison on March 19, formed an army and prepared for war. At Cracow when the news of the Vienna disturbances came in, seventy thousand Poles went to Count Deyne, the civil commissary, and demanded the liberty of four hundred of their compatriots.