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 there before him. Near Unhost, two (German) miles from Prague, the armies were close to each other, but Anhalt avoided a battle in what appeared to him an unfavourable position. He hurried on to Prague, and reached the outskirts of the capital on the evening of November 7. The Bohemian forces occupied a strong and judiciously chosen position on the "White Mountain" (Bila Hora), a few miles outside the walls of Prague. King Frederick immediately left his army and retired to the royal castle on the Hradčin, still bent on urging Queen Elizabeth to fly; he perhaps also wished to avoid the responsibility of commanding an army over which he no longer had any authority. Early on the following morning—November 8—the Catholic forces arrived before Prague, the Bavarians and other troops of the "Liga" forming the vanguard. Tilly and the Duke of Bavaria, contrary to the opinion of Bouquoi, decided on an immediate attack. The great demoralization in the Bohemian army, which was well known to the enemies, together with the fact that—following the example of their king—many Bohemian officers had left their soldiers and retired to Prague, rendered an immediate assault advisable; particularly as the Imperialists wished to finish the campaign before the winter. These motives, more probably than the eloquence of a Dominican friar, to which the decision was afterwards attributed, induced the Catholics immediately to begin their attack.

The numerical forces of the contending armies were nearly equal. The troops of the Catholic "Liga" numbered about 12,000, the Imperialists about 15,000 men. The forces of Anhalt—including 8000 Hungarian horsemen sent by Bethlen, and the levies of the Protestant nobles of Austria—also amounted to about 27,000 men. Nearly equal in numbers, the armies were very unequal as regards their fighting capacity. The Catholic troops, well fed and regularly paid, were thoroughly prepared and eager for battle; while the numerous monks, especially the Jesuits, whom the Duke of Bavaria had brought with him, inflamed the soldiers to fight bravely against the heretics. The Bohemian troops, on the other hand, who since the beginning of the war had been irregularly paid, and who had suffered great privations, were on the verge of mutiny. The generals to the last continued quarrelling among themselves, while the now notorious incapacity of the king, and his openly K