When the crowd of Chartist supporters arrived at the Trewythen Arms in the centre of Llanidloes they found it surrounded by the 'private army' armed with large sticks.
This enraged the crowd who stormed the building and set free the three Chartists who had been arrested by the London policemen. One of the policemen was badly beaten, but the other two escaped and hid, terrified of the mob.

The inside of the building was wrecked but the authorities, scared of losing their power, claimed that there was a serious armed revolution going on.
Most of the Chartist supporters only had sticks and fists to fight with, but the Lord Lieutenant at Powis Castle was asked to send in the army to get control of the town. So hundreds of armed soldiers were on the way to put the poor workers back in their proper place, and to force them to do as they were told by their "betters"...

The cavalry comes to town...