Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/255

 the possibility of his accession to the Bohemian throne. It has already been noted that some of the new leaders of the Utraquists no longer entertained the intense personal resentment against Sigismund which Žižka had felt, and which the Orphans—who all cherished memories of their dead leader—still preserved. Prokop was not disinclined to recognise Sigismund as king should he accept the articles of Prague. It was, however—as stated by the chronicler quoted below—decided that, in consequence of the resistance of the Orphans and the new town of Prague, the attempt to confer the Bohemian crown on Sigismund should be deferred to a later period. At the same time the diet decided to inform Sigismund of the conditions under which it would consent to a truce. For this purpose a new Bohemian embassy, again headed by Prokop the Great, started for Pressburg. The delegates arrived there probably at the end of June. Prokop informed Sigismund of the decision of the diet and questioned him as to the composition of the proposed council, at which, he said, the Hussites could only appear as one of the contending parties, not as contrite penitents. Sigismund had at the time of Prokop’s first visit already come to the conclusion that the negotiation would at that moment inevitably be resultless; he was, indeed, then already busily engaged in organising a new crusade against Bohemia. Yet both parties wished to avoid the odium of renewing the hostilities, and no immediate rupture