Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/194

 driving out the garrison that had heen put there by King Václav.

The first blood shed in the Hussite wars was caused by the Royalists, when the people were on their way to the meeting appointed for the 10th of November. The Royalists, fearing that so many armed people coming to the capital might cause disturbances, sent an armed force into the country to prevent them from assembling. In many places they were successful, but in the districts of Pilsen, Klatov, and Domazlitz (Taus), the preparations had been made in secret, so that a large company of people were gathered together on the 1st of November, and began their march toward Prague, their number increasing as they advanced on their way.

When they reached Knin, they were met by couriers begging them to send assistance to a party of pilgrims from Austi on the Lusitz, who were prevented from proceeding on their journey by a Royalist army, consisting of about 1,300 cavalry, under the command of Sir Peter of Sternberg, then the president of the mines at Kuttenberg. Assistance was immediately sent; but ere they reached their friends, the latter had been attacked and defeated, but few escaping with their lives. As soon as the new party came in sight, Sir Sternberg ordered them to surrender, lest the same fate befall them as the Austians; but before he could put his threat into execution, he saw a much larger force coming from Knin, and, concluding that prudence was the better part of valor, he retired from the field.

The people remained all night upon the hill whose soil had drunk the blood of the first martyrs to their cause. The next day a solemn mass was said, and the dead were buried amidst the deepest expressions of