The Lady Mayoress, whose training had been provincial, and whose nerves were flustered by the responsibilities of her new position, felt much alarm at the appearance and manner of these men. One of them, moved on peremptorily by the City police, was seen to hurl a large stone, which crashed through a window over the portico on the Walbrook side of the Mansion House. The fellow was promptly arrested and held prisoner, though an attempt to rescue him on the part of his associates almost proved successful. Throughout the day there was much difficulty in keeping the streets converging at the Mansion House available for the normal traffic. The streams of vehicles from Cheapside and Queen Victoria Street here had to be regulated so as to allow free passage for the other tides of traffic ever pouring in from Cornhill, King William Street, Threadneedle Street, and Princes Street. Yet at this very pivot-point of the congested City traffic, there were persistent attempts to block the way. Again and again the roadways had to be forcibly cleared by the police, and several accidents occurred. Removed from one position, groups formed again at another, scowling defiance at the constables who strove to keep them moving. For some hours after the first stone was thrown there was no other overt act of violence. But suddenly, as the sombre afternoon was merging into darkness, a pistol shot was heard. The report seemed to come from the corner of Bucklersbury. The crash of falling glass immediately followed, and over the head of a group of people a revolver was tossed high into the air and fell upon the shoulder of a constable. Some eight or ten policemen immediately made a rush in the direction from which the weapon appeared to have been thrown. A violent struggle ensued, in the course of which several persons were severely injured, but the actual offender escaped capture.