Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/257

 between him and the citizens of Prague. From Olomouc, Prokop proceeded to Ústi nad Orlicí (in German, Wildenschwert), where the Hussite army was occupied in besieging the neighbouring castle of Lanšberk.

The question of the recognition of Sigismund as King of Bohemia, which had been discussed at the diet of Prague, had caused new troubles in that city. It has already been mentioned that, roughly speaking, the old town contained the more conservative, and the new one the more radical, citizens. The Utraquist nobles, who had always demanded the establishment of a monarchical and orderly government, endeavoured to secure the recognition of Sigismund as King, and the Táborites were not opposed to this on condition that the new King accepted the articles of Prague. On the other hand the Orphans and the citizens of the New Town of Prague were bitterly opposed to this plan. It is one of the strange vicissitudes which we meet so frequently during the Bohemian civil wars that the citizens of the Old Town of Prague—the stronghold of the Hussite High Church—should now have requested the aid of the leader of the Táborites. Though so strongly antagonistic as regards matters of theology, both parties at that moment seem to have contemplated a monarchical restoration. Prokop, who was still directing the siege of Lanšberk, hurried to Prague, but found there that the two cities had already concluded peace or rather a truce. We have little information about the causes of this sudden agreement, but it is probable that both parties had become aware of the fact that Sigismund would not accept the Bohemian crown on the conditions under which it had been offered to him.

The castle of Lanšberk capitulated shortly after Prokop’s departure, and though during the summer small detachments of Hussites raided parts of Silesia, it was only for the following winter that Prokop had planned an invasion of Germany on a large scale. It was not only to provision Bohemia—as has been stated by many popular German writers—that these