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In one
district they found the town gates closed against them, and cannon
placed on the bastion near; but in others the authorities were
unprepared; and the workmen burst into the inner town, tearing down
stones and plaster to throw at the soldiers.
In the mean time the representatives of the Estates had reached the
Castle, and were trying to persuade the authorities to yield to the
demands of the people. Metternich persisted in believing that the whole
affair was moved by foreign influence, and particularly by Italians and
Swiss; and he desired that the soldiers should gather in the Castle, and
that Prince Windischgraetz should be appointed commandant of the city.
Alfred Windischgraetz was a Bohemian nobleman who had previously been
known chiefly for his strong aristocratic feeling, which he was said to
have embodied in the expression "Human beings begin at barons." But he
had been marked out by Metternich as a man of vigor and decision who
might be trusted to act in an emergency.


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