In February, 1867, Beust concluded an agreement with Hungary, and on
December 21 the "December Constitution" was introduced. Thus _dualism_
became a _fait accompli_.

5. Exasperated by this step, the Czech leaders visited Moscow in the same
year and fraternised with the Russians, thus showing their hostility to
Austria. In 1868 they published an eloquent declaration, written by Rieger,
declaring that they would never recognise dualism and emphasising Bohemia's
right to independence. When Francis Joseph visited Prague in the same year,
people left the city in crowds, anti-Austrian demonstrations were held
throughout the country, and flowers were laid on the spot where prominent
members of the Bohemian nobility had been executed by the Austrians
in 1621.

Vienna answered by fierce reprisals. Baron Koller was sent to Prague where
a state of siege was proclaimed. Czech papers were suppressed, and their
editors imprisoned. This only strengthened Czech opposition. The passive
policy of the Old Czechs gained popularity and the Czechs did not even
attend the Bohemian Diet. Finally, when the Franco-Prussian War was
imminent, the dynasty was forced to yield, and Potocki began to negotiate
with the Czechs.

Meanwhile the Czechs again entered the Bohemian Diet on the day of the
battle of Sedan, August 30, 1870, and issued a declaration of rights with
which also the Bohemian nobility for the first time publicly identified
themselves. On December 8, 1870, the Czechs (without the nobility)
presented the Imperial Chancellor, Beust, with a memorandum on Austrian
foreign policy, declaring their sympathy with France and Russia and
protesting against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine and against an