Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/196

 extended to the more prominent persons his hand. After dining in the castle, the royal pair made their ceremonial entry into Prague by the Reichsthor [Imperial Gate]. At the head of the procession rode bands of mounted men; next followed, in the Netherlandish uniform, an infantry company, which had attended the Palsgrave in his journey; next came the royal servants and a division of mounted body-guards, followed by about four hundred splendidly-adorned mounted men belonging to the nobility and knighthood of Bohemia and the other lands. Next after the nobility followed Prince Henry of Münsterberg, Duke Magnus of Würtemburg, Christian of Anhalt, with his son, and the Palsgrave Lewis, the King’s younger brother, all mounted and splendidly dressed. Behind them appeared Frederic upon a noble horse, caparisoned in blue satin, interwoven with silver, while he himself was clad in dark-brown raiment embroidered with silver, and at his sides marched twenty-four halberdiers clad in white and blue. The Queen followed in a carriage of the color of her husband’s clothing and richly adorned with gold and pearls. Her little son, attended by the first stewardess of the court, Countess Solms, rode in a second carriage trimmed with red satin. Some carriages, occupied by people belonging to the suite, and several companies of cavalry and infantry, closed the train.

When this procession approached the Reichsthor, it was greeted by various guilds and great numbers of the peasantry festively clad in the old Bohemian costume, and bearing those weapons which won renown in the Hussite wars. In the city the King was greeted by the citizens, who had marched out to the number of 4,000 strong in military equipment, and formed a festal line extending from the city gate to the castle. In this line were