[156] An insurrection had been broken out at Naples. After six hours' desperate fighting the royal troops retained possession of the town, though they lost three or four hundred men. The Chamber and the National Guard were dissolved and a new Ministry was formed under the Presidency of Signor Cariati.
[157] After a bombardment and some street fighting which lasted from the 12th to the 17th of June, Prince Windisch-Graetz was able to overcome the insurrection at Prague. During these struggles his wife was treacherously shot near the window of her drawing-room, while standing between her sisters, from the other side of the street.
[158] In the National Assembly at Frankfort the Committee of the Fifty had been tempted several times to form a triumvirate as a centre of power. Eventually a commission of eleven deputies was elected in June. This commission appointed Archduke John for Austria, the old Prince William for Prussia, and Prince Charles for Bavaria. The combination was ironically known as the directory of the three uncles, these princes being the uncles of the kings of their respective countries. The proposal was vigorously opposed, and the Session of June 23 eventually elected the Archduke John as sole director. A deputation offered the dignity to the Archduke who accepted it, and appeared in the National Assembly on the following 12th of July.
[159] When seven thousand workmen had been dismissed from the national workshops, a further outbreak caused much bloodshed in Paris for four days. On that occasion the Archbishop, Mgr. Affre, was killed upon one of the barricades where he was attempting to pacify the people.
[160] Herr von Pfördten.
[161] The discussions concerning the proposal of a deputy, Herr Stein, with reference to the army and to the control which the Ministry should exert upon the political opinions of officers, were concluded in the Chamber against the desires of the Cabinet. The Auerswald Ministry therefore resigned on September 11; on the 22nd of the same month the King appointed a new Cabinet of which General Pfuel was President.
[162] It will be remembered that the populations of Schleswig and Holstein, who wished to be united with Germany, had revolted against Denmark, and that the Prussians had come to their help. After several bloody conflicts an armistice was concluded between Denmark and Prussia at Malmæ on August 26, but the National Assembly at Frankfort refused to assent to this armistice on the ground that Prussia did not ask its authorisation. The council of Ministers and all the Ministers of the Empire had thereupon resigned.
[163] The Château of Trachenberg, not far from Breslau.
[164] In the morning of October 6 a number of the population of Vienna opposed the departure of the troops which were marching upon Hungary to reinforce Baron Jellachich, and a bloodthirsty struggle broke out. The residence of the Minister of War was captured by assault, and the Minister, the Comte de la Tour, was stabbed, hung to a lamp-post, and riddled with bullets. The troops retired, were driven back at every point and forced to evacuate the town. The Emperor and the Imperial Family, who had returned to Vienna in the month of August, were obliged to retire once more and went towards Olmütz. There the emperor abdicated on December 2 in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph I.
[165] General Count Lamberg had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Hungarian troops on September 25: the National Assembly at Pesth refused to recognise this nomination and declared all guilty of high treason who should obey him, and on his arrival at Pesth put him to death on the bridge which unites Buda and Pesth.