Having agreed to do so, I stayed at Elberfeld for the winter.
Before I left, the revolutionary movement had broken out afresh in the Rhine Province, and I had an opportunity of seeing a few shots fired, and a vast deal of excitement in Elberfeld.
After a great deal of agitation and discontent, a number of Prussian soldiers were on their march to preserve order. I was taking a stroll one day with Mr. B——, when it was reported that the military were approaching. Barricades had been formed already with the pavement stones from the streets.
There was a general uproar. We were spectators of the riot, and saw the mob try to fire the Mayor’s house, and eventually do a vast deal of injury.
On the arrival of a battery of nine-pounders, and a few companies of infantry, the barricades were manned, and flags of defiance hung out. The soldiers drew up in the principal square, and towards evening they moved forth, when we were not far from the barricades.
The street in which the first obstacle was raised, had riflemen at the windows; a captain was shot, and several soldiers killed or wounded before the discharge of cannon. The defenders of this barricade were either frightened or blown away much quicker than we expected, but as darkness crept on, the military withdrew, expecting a reinforcement in the morning from Düsseldorf.
During the night, Mr. B—— and I visited the barricades, it was not an easy matter to approach or enter them, but everybody knew the luftschiffer or aëronaut, and the English teacher, and no one supposed that we were spies or combatants.
Among the gaily decorated occupiers of the barricades, were several of the men who had assisted as labourers at the balloon ascents; some of these men claimed an intimate acquaintanceship, and although they merely drank small beer when engaged in our service, yet now that the tables were turned, they invited us to drink something stronger, and it was not advisable to offer them a slight by an arrogant refusal.
The hours we spent among the barricades, and in the hotels which were behind them, proved entertaining and instructive.
At Easter in the year 1849, I made the first spring trip at Barmen, but before midsummer I started for Berlin, where notices were already out, to the effect that I would ascend shortly from the far-famed Kroll’s Gardens.