Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/92

 he was ready, and then said: “God be praised; may His holy will be done! I have lived for Him, and I now also die for Him. But as my Redeemer died and then arose from the dead to rule over the quick and the dead, so do I also believe that my soul will live and that my body will arise again on the day of resurrection, and then will be similar to His bright and splendid body.” Then he prayed for some time.

‘When they reached the scaffold, he turned to the balcony where the imperialist judges sat, and said, “Tell that emperor that I now stand before his unjust court of justice, but that he will once appear before a terrible and a just one.” The drums were beaten so loudly that it was only with difficulty that his words were heard. Then advised by the priest John, he turned to the scaffold, knelt down and prepared himself. Then, seeing his purse on the scaffold, he seized it and gave to one who was standing near a golden coin that had been struck in commemoration of the coronation of King Frederick, saying: “I bind you by your oath, when my dear King Frederick returns to the royal throne, to give this coin to him, and to tell him that I have carried it with me up to the scaffold because of the love that I bear him, and that for his cause I gladly shed my blood and die.” Then he knelt down, and while crying with a loud voice “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and receive my soul!” he blessedly ended his life and repaired to heaven.’

I have only time to quote one other passage from Skála’s narrative. It refers to the leave-taking of the Bohemian patriots, when they were separately led forth to execution. He writes: ‘This is worthy of notice, that when one of these holy men and martyrs