Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/336

 Stromayer, who had been their guide during their first visit to Prague, again to accompany them as far as Cheb. The town council granted their demand, and with Stromayer sent also “a servant who knew Bohemian and Latin fairly well, so that he could act as their interpreter.” On September 27 the representatives of the Council and those of the Bohemian nation arrived at the Bohemian frontier. The envoys of the Council here again hesitated to proceed further. They, however, begged their Bohemian colleagues to obtain for them fresh letters of safe conduct, and, after having received them, continued their journey to Prague, where they arrived on October 22. November 11 was finally fixed on as the date on which the estates were to meet.

When the estates met the very grave political situation of Bohemia had first to be taken into consideration. It has already been noted that the rigid discipline maintained by Žižka in the Táborite armies had gradually declined. In consequence of the prolonged war it had become necessary to strengthen these armies by mercenaries, who, for the sake of plunder, flocked to the Hussite standards from all Slavic countries and even from Germany. During the first visit of the envoys of the Council to Bohemia comparative peace had reigned in the country, and even the continuous feud with Plzeň had been suspended. About that time a large army of the Orphans had entered the service of the King of Poland, who was then at war with the Knights of the Teutonic Order. The Bohemians here certainly fought as allies of a kindred Slavic country; yet as the Poles, with the exception of Prince Korybutovič and his followers, always upheld the cause of Rome, this campaign was by no means advantageous to Utraquism. The great military successes of the Hussites naturally increased their pride, and it is even now a subject of pride to Bohemians that the Hussite armies once carried the Bohemian standards as far as the Baltic Sea. In the autumn of 1433 the victorious Bohemians returned to their country.