But the
ruse entirely failed; the people recognized the City Guard as their
friends, and refused to attack them; and the rumor soon spread that the
police had fired on the City Guard. It was now evident that the citizen
soldiers were on the side of the people; and the richer citizens sent a
deputation to entreat that Metternich should be dismissed.
But the Archduke Maximilian was resolved that, as the first expedient
proposed by the Council had failed, he would now apply some of those
more violent remedies which had been postponed at first. He therefore
ordered that the cannon should be brought down from the Castle to the
Michaelerplatz. From this point the cannon would have commanded, on the
one side the Herren Gasse, where the crowd had gathered in the morning,
and in front the Kohlmarkt, which led to the wide street of Amgraben.
Had the cannon been fired then and there, the course of the insurrection
must, in one way or other, have been changed. That change might have
been as Maximilian hoped, the complete collapse of the insurrection; or,
as Latour held, the cannon might have swept away the last vestige of
loyalty to the Emperor, and the republic might have been instantly
proclaimed.
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