Page:Glimpses of Bohemia by MacDonald (1882).pdf/44

 The churches erected under the Edict of Toleration were located in the most out of the way situations; they were not permitted to have the outward appearance of churches, nor to have doors opening on a main street, and both steeples and bells were also prohibited. These restrictions were only removed by the decrees of 1863 and 1866. Some of the congregations hastening to take advantage of their new liberties, have recently erected steeples close by their old churches, and aim by-and-by at building churches to these steeples to replace the worn-out, barn-like edifices erected 100 years ago.

Notwithstanding the insinuating dust by which we were now thoroughly begrimed, we were enjoying the drive to Klobouk, through the rich undulating plains near Brünn, little dreaming of the succession of surprises before us, when we reached the village of Selowitz, where we had been told the horses would be changed. On alighting, we were received by the Superintendent (permanent Moderator) of the Synod, Pastor Benes, who delivered an address of welcome in Latin. The cortege, now consisting of seven carriages, each drawn by a pair of the fiery little horses of the country, proceeded rapidly over the ground occupied by the Russians during the battle of Austerlitz, and had made some progress in ascending the heights beyond, when, at a point where the road dipped into a hollow, the astonished delegates found themselves surrounded by a brilliant escort of forty mounted peasant youths, each bearing a gaily-emblazoned Hussite banner. Presently the carriages stopped, and an elder of the Klobouk congregation, advancing from a crowd of the people, who had come to the confines of the parish to meet the Superintendent and delegates, delivered an address in Czech. The feelings of the moment were too intense to allow one to think of such a trivial circumstance as the picturesqueness of the incident; but now one cannot but recall the surroundings. The winding road is visible only for a few hundred yards above us. The highest point is occupied by the advance guard of the brightly dressed cavaliers, with their beaded hats, embroidered coats, elaborate saddle-cloths, and glittering banners. Then the line of carriages stretches down from the point at which we stand, with a couple of the escort between