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 the national cause, resumed allegiance to King Sigismund. Among them was Čeněk of Wartenberg, whose political manoeuvres we may consider typical of the vacillating policy of the great utraquist nobles of his time.

Soon after entering Bohemia, Sigismund obtained possession of the town of Kutna Hora, by the aid of a powerful party among the townsmen who upheld the papal cause, or at any rate were opposed to the hegemony which Prague at this period attempted to impose on the Bohemian towns. Žižka, who with his Taborites had now joined his forces with those of Prague, retreated before the invaders as far as Kolin, and Emperor Sigismund spent Christmas at Kutna Hora, feeling certain that he had now at last subdued the Bohemians.

Žižka had meanwhile received reinforcements from various parts of Bohemia, and his soldiers, exasperated by the atrocities which the Hungarian soldiers of Sigismund had committed, were even more anxious than usual to encounter the foe. On the other hand, Pipa strongly advised the king to retreat. When Žižka's army, on the "day of the three kings" (or Epiphany) (January 6, 1422), suddenly attacked the village of Nebovid—between Kolin and Kutna Hora—a panic seized the king's forces. An immediate retreat became necessary, and though Sigismund is said to have urged some of the Bohemian nobles who were now on his side to attempt to hold the town of Kutna Hora, they "refused to encounter certain death." The retreat soon became a rout, and nearly 12,000 of Sigismund's soldiers were killed, the king only escaping by his rapid flight. The town of Německý Brod, where a last stand was made, was stormed by the Bohemians on January 10, 1422. Contrary to Žižka's orders its defenders were put to the sword, while the town was pillaged and totally destroyed.

This great victory of the Bohemians for the time ensured to them safety from foreign enemies, and it also precipitated the result of the negotiations with Poland. King Vladislav had declined the Bohemian crown, but his brother Alexander Witold, Prince of Lithuania, was now ready to accept