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 seized Martinec, dragged him to the nearest window, and hurled him down into the trench below. Then there was a moment of silence, when Count Thurn, pointing to Slavata, encouraged them to finish the work by saying: “Honorable lords, here is the second one!” The unfortunate regent was immediately seized, and, in spite of his piteous cries and protestations of his innocence, was thrown down after his colleague. His secretary, Fabricius, drawing attention to himself by some derogatory remark, at once shared the fate of his master.

By some strange accident none of the three men were killed, although they fell from a height of some sixty feet. The story that they fell upon a heap of rubbish is now discredited. The secretary, for services rendered afterwards to the government, was knighted, assuming the name of Knight von Hohenfall. The secretary, being the least injured, escaped, and hurried to Vienna to tell the news to the king. The two lords sought refuge at the house of Zdenek of Lobkovic, whose wife, Polyxene, took them under her protection. Count Thurn, indeed, came to demand the fugitives; but the lady persuaded him to leave the wounded men in her care.

On the same day that the regents had been thrown out of the window, the States reassembled and elected thirty Directors, ten out of each State, who were to take charge of the government in the place of the regents. Then they began to collect troops, naming Count Thurn the commander-in-chief. Messengers were then sent to the other Bohemian States, asking them to unite with them for the defense of their liberties, and also to the German princes, ask-