Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/154

 citizens to the soldiery. But while the insurgents were in complete control of large portions of the city during the whole night, there was not a single case of theft or of wanton destruction. Property was absolutely safe.

The “Prince of Prussia,” the oldest brother of the childless king and presumptive heir to the throne—the same prince who as Kaiser William I. was in the course of events to become the most popular monarch of his time—was reported to have given the order to fire on the people, and the popular wrath turned upon him. By order of the king the prince left Berlin under cover of night and hurried to England. Excited crowds gathered in front of his palace on the street “Unter den Linden.” There was no military guard to protect the building. A university student put upon its front the inscription “National property,” and it was not touched. Immediately after the street battle had ceased the shops were opened again as in ordinary times.

Arms were distributed among the people from the government armories. The king declared, “I have become convinced that the peace and the safety of the city cannot be better maintained than by the citizens themselves.” On the 21st of March Frederick William IV. appeared again among the people, on horseback, a black-red-gold scarf around his arm, a black-red-gold flag at his request carried before him, a huge tricolor hoisted at the same moment on the royal palace. The king spoke freely to the citizens. He would “place himself at the head of the movement for a united Germany; in that united Germany Prussia would be merged.” He swore that he wanted nothing but a “constitutional and united Germany.” At the university building he turned to the assembled students, saying, “I thank you for the glorious spirit you have shown in these days. I am proud that