in regard to the dregs of the populace, by money. There is weighty
evidence in support of this. But it is still more certain--and, though I
was but eleven years old and brought up in a loyal atmosphere, I, too,
felt and experienced it--that before the 18th of March the general
discontent was at the highest point. There was no controlling it.

If the chief of police, Von Minutoli, asserts that he knew beforehand the
hour when the revolution was to break out, this is no special evidence of
foresight; for the first threat the citizens had ventured to utter
against the king was in the address drawn up at the sitting of the
popular assembly in Kopenickstrasse, and couched in the following terms
"If this is granted us, and granted at once, then we will guarantee a
genuine peace." To finish the proposition with a statement of what would
occur in the opposite case, was left to his Majesty; the assembly had
simply decided that the "peaceful demonstration of the wishes of the
people" should take place on the 18th, at two o'clock, several thousand
citizens taking part in it. While the address was handed in, and until
the reply was received, the ambassadors of the people were to remain
quietly assembled in the Schlossplatz. What was to happen in case the
above-mentioned demands were not granted is nowhere set down, but there
is little doubt that many of those present intended to trust to the
fortune of arms. The address contained an ultimatum, and Brass is right
in calling it, and the meeting in which it originated, the starting point
of the revolution. Whoever had considered the matter attentively might
easily say, "On the 18th, at two o'clock, it will be decided either so or
so." The king had come to his determination earlier than that. Sybel
puts it beyond question that he had been forced to it by the situation in
Europe, not by threats or the compulsion of a conflict in the streets.
Nevertheless it came to a street fight, for the enemies of order were
skillful enough to start a fresh conflagration with the charred beams of