The President, amazed at this daring, pushed him away. In an instant a crowd of his friends, howling and shouting, swarmed over the fence, and a regular fight began on the tribune itself.
The deputies had by this time lost control of themselves, and proceeded with blows and kicks to drive the President and Vice-Presidents of the Reichsrath off the tribune, or raised platform, on which the President sits.
One of the Vice-Presidents was knocked down and trampled on, and one account of the affray said that the President was so roughly handled that he fainted.
Finally, the deputies drove the representatives of the Government from the tribune, and took possession of it themselves.
What new deed of violence they might have attempted it is impossible to say, but at this moment a door at the end of the chamber opened, and in marched a force of sixty policemen.
In their trim uniforms and their spiked steel helmets, they presented a very formidable appearance, and the effect on the house was magical.
The members were astounded that the Government should dare to infringe on their rights and privileges by sending police into the chamber that was sacred to the liberties of the people.
The Commissioner of Police was not in the least embarrassed. He treated the deputies as he would any other disorderly mob, and, marching his men to the foot of the tribune, ordered the deputies to come down from it.
The deputies firmly refused to do any such thing, whereupon the Commissioner took one man by the shoulder and ordered him off.
The deputy resisted, and was seized by six stalwart policemen, and carried bodily out of the chamber.