Archduke Albert had found to his cost that the insurrection was not, as
he had supposed, the work of a few discontented men. The students fought
gallantly; but a still fiercer element was contributed to the
insurrection by the workmen who had come in from the suburbs. One
workman was wounded in his head, his arm, and his foot; but he continued
to encourage his friends, and cried out that he cared nothing for life;
either he would die that day, or else "the high gentlemen should be
overthrown." Another who had had no food since the morning entreated for
a little refreshment that he might be able to fight the better; and he
quickly returned to the struggle. In those suburbs from which the
workmen had not been able to break into the inner town, the insurrection
threatened to assume the form of an attack on the employers. Machines
were destroyed, and the houses of those employers who had lowered wages
were set on fire.
It was this aspect of the insurrection which encouraged the nobles to
believe that, by calling out the guard, they would induce the richer
citizens to take arms against the workmen; and this policy was carried
still further when, on the application of the rector of the University,
the students also were allowed the privilege of bearing arms.
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