Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/352

 it to be known to you that, by God’s will, the false nobles, with the Praguers of the Old Town, attacked our very dear brethren the citizens of the New Town; they killed some and, as we have seen, took possession of the city. It therefore seems well to us that you should, abandoning everything, move from the city of Plzeň in the direction of Sedlčany; for Čapek is assembling large forces, and we of Tábor will, we hope, do the same; for it is better for us to die than to leave unavenged the innocent blood of our dearest brethren, which was fraudulently shed. Farewell in the name of the Lord, who after our trials will console us.” As mentioned in the letter, Čapek of San, the best cavalry general of the Orphans and Táborites, was rapidly raising troops in the district of Králové Hradec, where the Orphans had their most numerous and staunch adherents. Prokop himself still succeeded in obtaining a considerable number of recruits in the town of Tábor and its vicinity.

Though the contemporary records are silent on this subject, it yet appears that the exhausted population of Bohemia did not receive this new call to arms with great enthusiasm. This is proved by the fact that a comparatively small army of Táborites encountered the enemies at the decisive battle of Lipany. The first result of the capture of the New Town was the final raising of the siege of Plzeň. It was probably rather an excuse for this decision than its actual cause that about this time the Catholics again succeeded in provisioning the city. On May 9 the besieging army retired from Plzeň, after having burnt their tents and destroyed the earthworks which they had erected. Besides the permanent armies of the Táborites and Orphans, the levies of the New Town of Prague, of Beroun, and of Žatec took part in the march. The few soldiers of the Old Town of Prague who were still in the camp were taken prisoners. For reasons that are not known to us the armies divided after a short time; the Táborites marched