Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/145

 men found in the whole proceeding an opportunity for harmless amusement. Armed with our rapiers, the iron sheaths of which were made to rattle upon the pavement to the best of our ability, we marched through the streets. Every solitary citizen whom we met late in the night was summoned with pompous phrases to “disperse” and to betake himself to his “respective habitation,” or, if it pleased him better, to follow us to the guardhouse and have a glass of wine with us. Whenever we happened to run across a patrol not composed of students, but of citizens, we at once denounced them as a dangerous mob, arrested them and took them to the guardhouse, where with cheers for the new empire we drank as many glasses together as there were points of reform in the political programme. The good burghers of Bonn fully appreciated the humorous situation and entered heartily into the fun.

While all this looked merry enough, affairs elsewhere were taking a serious turn—as serious as we, too, felt at the bottom of our hearts.

Exciting news came from all sides. In Cologne a threatening ferment prevailed. In the taverns and on the streets resounded the “Marseillaise,” which at that time still passed in all Europe as the “hymn of liberty.” On the public places great meetings were held to consult about the demands to be made by the people. A large deputation, headed by the late lieutenant of artillery, August von Willich, forced its way into the hall of the city council, vehemently insisting that the municipality present as its own the demands of the people of Cologne to the king. The streets resounded with the military drumbeat; the soldiery marched upon the popular gatherings, and Willich, as well as another ex-artillery officer, Fritz Anneke, were arrested; whereupon increasing excitement.

The Rhenish members of the prorogued United Diet