Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/28

 Ziska” from the Taborites, under the name of the “Orphans,” after his death. Indeed, in 1422 a quarrel took place between Ziska and the Taborites, who were never more than partially reconciled, though Ziska resumed the chief command of the army as before. In the same year Prince Sigismund Korybut of Poland was elected Regent of Bohemia, and recognized as such by Ziska.

The third crusade was determined upon at the Diet of Nuremberg, in September and October, 1422, but was ended by an armistice for a year, and the total disbandment of the crusading army in November. In 1423, Ziska carried his victorious arms not only into Moravia, but into Hungary. But 1424 was Ziska’s “bloody year,” during which, in his hatred of hypocrisy, and of what he supposed to be coquetting with Rome, he injured his own nation as much as the common enemy. He died of the plague, commending himself to God, not far from the Moravian frontier, on the 11th of Oct. 1424. His great victories were won through the extraordinary drill and discipline of his infantry and moving fortress of waggons, the celerity of his marches and manœuvres, and his skill in the employment of artillery.

Ziska was succeeded by Prokop the Bald, otherwise called Prokop the Great. Under him the Bohemians assumed the offensive, and victoriously invaded Austria and Silesia. On March 18, 1427, Pope Martin V, appointed Henry, Bishop of Winchester, his cardinal-legate, with most extensive powers, in Bohemia, Hungary, and Germany. A diet was held at Frankfort, and a fourth crusade against the Hussites begun. But on August 2 the whole army which had invaded Bohemia was seized with a panic, and the cardinal, when on his way to join it, met it in full retreat. The diet met again at Frankfort, and on Dec. 3 the Hussite-tax was imposed throughout the German Empire, for the purpose of carrying on the war. Mean-