By 1:30 p.m. you could hear the crowd at the Capitol five blocks away along the Lake Mendota shoreline. By 2:30, protesters on the Square were moving no faster than a shuffle. By 3 people could not move. And at 3:05, "Wisconsin's 14" got a heroes' welcome on the steps of the state Capitol.

"You go away for a couple of weeks and look at what happens," said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, who, along with his smiling colleagues, kept surveying the crowd, seemingly awed by the turnout. "It's so nice to be home in Wisconsin."

Saturday's crowd, estimated by Madison Police to be between 85,000 and 100,000, surrounded the podium on the State Street side of the Capitol and showered the senators with shouts of "Thank you! Thank you!"

The senators returned the sentiment and clapped for the crowd. "We left because the Republicans gave us no voice," said Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee. "Thank you for being our voice while we were gone."

Saturday's protest was the fourth straight week of weekend protests that have drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the Capitol Square.