Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/44

 monies of ecclesiastical degradation and deconsecration were performed on Hus, and how he was led to the ‘place of torment,’ which was in a field among gardens beyond the walls and fortifications of the city. ‘When he was led forth,’ Mladenovič writes, ‘some laymen who were standing near said: “We know not what this man has done or said previously, but now we see and hear that he prays and says holy words”; and others said: “Verily it were well that he should have a confessor and be heard.” But a priest who was riding near, clad in a green doublet lined with red silk, said: “He may not be heard, nor may a confessor be granted to him, for he is a heretic.”’

When Hus arrived at the spot of his martyrdom, Mladenovič tells us: ‘He prayed with a loud voice, “Lord Jesus Christ, I will bear patiently and humbly this horrible, shameful, and cruel death, for the sake of Thy gospel and the preaching of Thy truth.” When he was led past the spectators he addressed them, begging them not to believe that he had ever held, preached, or taught, the tenets that had been attributed to him by false witnesses. He was then stripped of his clothes and tied with cords to a stake, and his arms were turned backward to the stake. When his face was at first turned to the East, some of the spectators said: “Let him not be turned to the East, for he is a heretic, but to the West,” and it was done thus. When a rusty chain was placed round his neck he said, smiling to the lictors [Mladenovič thus designates the soldiers or town-officials], “Our Lord Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, was bound with a harder and heavier chain, and I, a poor wretch, do not fear to be bound with this chain for His sake.” Now the stake consisted of