Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/430

 upon a beam that was put up in one of the windows of the Town Hall. Nathanael Vodnansky was hanged upon the public gibbet in the rink; and Sixtus of Ottendorf was pardoned just as he was stepping to the place of execution. The heads of the executed were put in iron cages, and set up upon the tower of the bridge in Old Town as a warning to all passers-by; the bodies were left to the widows and orphans for burial.

On the day following this fearful tragedy, penalties were meted out to those who had not been condemned to death. Some were publicly whipped and then exiled from the country; others cast into prison for life or for a term of years; those that had not made their appearance for the trial, had their names nailed to the gibbet by the headsman, and their estates confiscated.

When such distinguished men were so severely dealt with, the rest of the people that had participated in the uprising had not much to hope for. The court then proceeded to punish the Protestant clergy; that is, the members of the Utraquist Consistory, the Evangelical ministers of the city of Prague, and those of other royal cities. Some time after, the university was taken out of the hands of the Protestants and placed under the control of the Jesuits.

Some time after the great trial, a decree was issued by the emperor, styled a “general pardon,” wherein it was announced that, although all those who had taken part in the “abominable rebellion” against him had forfeited their estates, their honor, and their lives, nevertheless, in regard to their honor and their lives, he would show them mercy, if they themselves should acknowledge their guilt in a certain specified time; but if they refused to do so, they would suffer the ex-