Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/583

 with a wall and vaumure, and the river of Lucinitius fenceth a great part of the town; the rest is compassed in with a great brook, which running straight into the river Lucinitius, is stopped by a great rock, and driven back towards the right hand all the length of the city, and, at the further end, it joineth with the great river. The way unto it by land is scarcely thirty feet broad, for it is almost an island. In this place there was a deep ditch cast, and a triple wall made, of such thickness, that it could not be broken with any engine. The wall was full of towers and forts set in their convenient and meet places. Zisca was the first that builded the castle, and those that came after him fortified it, every man according to his own device. At that time the Taborites had no horsemen amongst them, until such time as Nicholas, master of the Mint (whom the emperor had sent into Bohemia with a thousand horsemen to set things in order, and to withstand the Taborites, lodging all night in a village named Vogize), was surprised by Zisca coming upon him suddenly in the night, taking away all his horse and armour, and setting fire to the village. Then Zisca taught his soldiers to mount on horseback, to leap, to run, to turn, and to cast a ring, so that after this he never led army without his wings of horsemen.

In this mean time Sigismund, the emperor, gathering together the nobles of Silesia, entered unto Bohemia, and went unto Græcium, and from thence with a great army unto Cutna, alluring Zenko, with many great and large promises, to render up the castle of Prague unto him, and there placed himself to annoy the town. This Zenko, infamed with double treason, returned home. The citizens of Prague sent for Zisca, who, speeding himself thither with the Taborites, received the city under his governance. In the Bohemians' host, there were but only two barons, Hilco Crusina of Lutemperg, and Hilco Waldestene, with a few other nobles; all the residue were of the common people. They went about, first, to subdue the castle, which was by nature very strongly fenced, and could not be won by any other means than by famine: whereupon all the passages were stopped, that no victuals should be carried in. But the emperor opened the passages by dint of sword, and when he had given unto those who were besieged all things necessary, having sent for aid out of the empire, he determined, shortly after, to besiege the city. There were, in the emperor's camp, the dukes of Saxony, the marquis of Brandenburg and his son-in-law, Albert of Austria. The city was assaulted by the space of six weeks. The emperor Sigismund was crowned in the metropolitan house in the castle, Conrad, the archbishop, solemnizing the ceremonies of the coronation. The city was straitly besieged. In the mean time the captains Rosenses and Chragery, who had taken the tents of the Taborites, being overcome in battle by Nicholas Huss, whom Zisca had sent with part of his power, for that purpose, were driven out of their tents, and Græcium, the queen's city, was also taken.

There is, also, above the town of Prague, a high hill, which is called Videchon. On this hill had Zisca strongly planted a garrison, that his enemies should not possess it, with whom the marquis of Misnia skirmishing, lost a great part of his soldiers. For when the Misnians