The King of Prussia promised, on the arrival of this news, to summon the Assembly for April 2; and two days later he appeared on the balcony of his palace and declared his desire to change Germany from an Alliance of States into a Federal State. But the suspicions of the people had now been thoroughly aroused; and on March 18, the very day on which the King made this declaration, fresh deputations came to demand liberties from him; and when he appealed to them to go home his request was not complied with. The threatening attitude of the soldiers, and the recollection of their violence on the preceding days, had convinced the people that until part at least of the military force was removed they could have no security for liberty. The events of the day justified their belief; for, while someone was reading aloud to the people the account of the concessions recently made by the King, the soldiers suddenly fired upon them, and the crowd fled in every direction. They fled, however, soon to rally again; barricades were once more thrown up; the Poles of Posen flocked in to help their friends, and the black, red, and gold flag of Germany was displayed. Women joined the fight at the barricades; and, on the 19th, some of the riflemen whom the King had brought from Neufchatel refused to fire upon the people. Then the King suddenly yielded, dismissed his Ministers, and promised to withdraw the troops and allow the arming of the people. The victory of the popular cause seemed now complete; but the bitterness which still remained in the hearts of the citizens was shown by a public funeral procession through Berlin in honour of those who had fallen in the struggle. The King stood bare-headed on the balcony as the procession passed the palace; and on March 21 he came forward in public, waving the black, red, and gold flag of Germany. But while the movements for German freedom and unity were strengthening the cause of the Viennese and destroying the hopes of Metternich, two other movements for freedom, which might have helped to produce a newer and freer life in Europe, were preparing the way, against the wishes of their leaders, for that collision of interests between the different races of Europe which was to be the chief cause of the failure of the Revolution of 1848. Of these movements the one least known and understood in England is that which took place in Bohemia. In order to understand it we must recall some of the events of earlier Bohemian history.