Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/239

 rolled towards the Town Hall like the waves of the ocean. Hasek of Wallenstein, with a force of several hundred men, went among the people, trying to quiet them by telling them that nothing had happened to their priest. They demanded, if all were well, that his person should be immediately produced, and when he began to make excuses, they called him a traitor and a murderer, and would have torn him to pieces upon the spot had he not succeeded in galloping off through the crowd and saving himself by flight. The aldermen fled through the back passages of the hall, and the guards followed their example. The people, breaking into the hall and going into the court, soon found the bodies of their murdered friends. The head of their beloved pastor was recognized, taken out, and exhibited to the multitude. At the sight of this ghastly spectacle, their grief knew no bounds. Some wept, some tore their hair, some fainted from agony, and some relieved their feelings by frightful curses and imprecations against the perpetrators of the deed. The head was passed from one to another until it remained in the hands of a certain priest, who carried it about on a platter, his own grief being so great that he could not utter a word. It is needless to add that the aldermen were hunted down and put to death without mercy. It had been well had they listened to the warning words of their victim. Not only did they lose their own lives, but the evil they brought upon the city was worse than that which they had tried to redress. For many days the mob ruled the city unhindered, and finally restored the very government that had been overthrown with so much difficulty. Then the death of John Zelivsky was a serious loss to the