Rakoczy and Stephen ran to aid the servants in case of need, while I stayed with the ladies.
I suggested it would be well to draw the curtains, but the baroness would not consent, so we sat looking down into the street.
The people did not appear to have any wish to do harm. They passed along singing, and waving flags, and many were already out of sight when some one raised a cry of "Von Arnstein." At the sound of that name the others stopped, and quickly collecting in front of the house, began in loud tones to abuse the absent noble.
The baroness gave an expressive little shrug of the shoulders.
"What poltroons!" she exclaimed contemptuously. "If my husband were here they would run like a flock of frightened sheep."
With this remark I could scarcely agree; nevertheless I had sufficient wisdom to keep my doubts to myself.
I looked at the fräulein. Her face was pale, but she was perfectly cool and collected; as she said afterwards, a soldier's daughter must learn to face danger.
"It's only a street brawl," I said. "They will get tired soon and go away."
But it is always difficult to reckon on what a mob will do, and this was a case in point.
The words had hardly left my lips, when a man, wearied perhaps of shouting, varied his pastime by aiming a stroke at the door with a heavy hatchet.