Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/98

 he rushed without hat or mantle out of the reach of the castle, and, after borrowing the two missing garments, fled from the city. Having taken a short rest in the neighborhood of Prague, he continued his journey to Vienna, and was the first to bring to the Emperor the news of what had occurred in Prague. Nor had Martinitz any need of further aid to reach the house of the Chancellor, to which Slawata, being led and supported, also followed.

The two noblemen had but just recovered themselves a little, when they heard a great troop with clangor of weapons and tramping of horses approaching. It was Thurn and his adherents. They pressed their way into the house and demanded from the Chancellor’s wife, Polixena von Lobkowitz, who placed herself in the way of their progress, where the Regents were lodged. The noble lady defended herself with decision and dignity against any further molestation of her protégés, and refused to let the Count so much as see them. Whether it was the impression made by her words; whether she pictured the condition of the Regents with darkest colors in order to win for the dying a sympathy which had been denied to the living,—she caused Thurn to withdraw without offering the Regents further molestation. They might now breathe again in quiet. Martinitz, who did not trust his enemies, fled the ensuing night to Bavaria, while Slawata, confined by illness to his bed, was forced to remain. His security was not indeed imperilled, though he did, during the following year, seek by flight safety from snares which might be laid for him.

On the day after the throwing from the windows, the Protestant Estates, who now as a body pursued the direction they had taken and constituted themselves a Landtag, determined to erect a provisional government, which was