Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/262



Albert of Austria again prepared to invade Moravia. The Bohemians, seeing the threatening danger, laid aside their own quarrels, and Pragites, Taborites, and Orphans united their forces against the common enemy. Albert was driven from Trebitz, which he was besieging. The Hussites then invaded Austria and took the town of Retetz. There they met with a grievous misfortune in the death of one of their best commanders, Bohuslav of Swamberg. His place was taken by Prokop the Great, or, as he was often called, Prokop the Tonsured. Next to Žižka, he proved to be the ablest commander in the Hussite army.

Prokop was the nephew of a wealthy knight and merchant in the city of Prague, who, adopting him as his son, allowed him many privileges, taking him with himself in his travels through several European countries. Upon returning home, he was ordained as a priest. Adopting the most extreme views of the Hussites, he was charged with heresy, and cast into prison. Being released, he went farther in his innovations than most of the Taborites, as is proved by the fact that he took a wife.

As chief of the Taborites, he was only their commander, not a soldier; for he never bore arms and never personally took part in any battle. Like the modern commander-in-chief, he planned the campaigns and the battles, leaving the other generals to carry out his plans.

Early in the spring of 1426 the Bohemians invaded Moravia, and won the town of Breclav, near the Aus-