Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/335

 by Duke William of Bavaria, who, in King Sigismund’s absence, acted as “protector” of the Council. The Bohemian representatives were entirely excluded from these deliberations, but they were, in accordance with Berruer’s advice, treated with great kindness and hospitably entertained.

The Council had this time chosen only four plenipotentiaries who were to represent it at Basel; they were Philibert, Bishop of Coutance, John Palomar, Henry Toke, and Martin Berruer, who had all taken part in former missions. Leaving Basel on September 11, together with the Bohemian representatives, they arrived, on the 20th of that month, at Nürnberg, where a short halt was made. They were here informed of the important military events that had occurred in Bohemia since the first embassy of the Council had left that country. They heard that—as will be mentioned later—a Táborite force had entered Bavaria, but had been defeated, with great losses, at the village of Hilkersreuth. (Civil war had again broken out in Bohemia, and the envoys would, on their way to Prague, have to pass near the camp of the Táborite army, that was then besieging Plzeň. In view of the fanatical hatred of the Roman Church which characterised the Táborites it appeared somewhat perilous to continue the journey. It was at Nürnberg also that the Bohemian delegates received letters from the estates of their country, announcing that the diet would meet in October to discuss the possibility of a general pacification, but that this meeting could not take place unless the estates were assured that the Council would accept the compacts in the wording in which they had been presented to it. The Bohemian envoys, as already mentioned, had at Basel been kept entirely ignorant of the deliberations of the Council. They therefore consulted their fellow-travellers, the representatives of the Council, who, pledged as they were to secrecy, gave an evasive answer. They, however, determined to continue their journey to Prague, and begged the town council of Nürnberg to allow one of the citizens, Sigmund