Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/290

 Poland” declared that canon law precisely indicated the treatment that should be meted out to heretics, and a “fat priest sitting at the window in precious robes, who appeared to be a Prussian,” exclaimed with a loud voice: “Let him not be allowed to recant, for even if he recants, he will not keep to it.” Hus, however, did not recant, nor was it in consideration of his reiterated and consistent statements possible for him to do so. Palec, wishing to envenom the already prevalent animosity against Hus, now began to animadvert on his attitude on the occasion of the execution of the three young men who had taken part in the demonstrations against the misuse of indulgences. No promise was made to Hus assuring him that he would be allowed freely to expound his views, and he was reconducted to prison by the Bishop of Riga, in whose custody he had been ever since his return from Gottlieben to Constance. On leaving the hall Hus met John of Chlum, one of the Bohemian noblemen who were then at Constance. Chlum gave him his hand and endeavoured to comfort him. Hus, as Mladenovic tells us, was deeply touched that he did not disdain to salute him who was rejected by almost all and spurned as a heretic, and to give him his hand.

At the end of the sitting an incident occurred that deserves to be told in the words of Mladenovic, who was present. He writes: “After his (Hus’s) departure, all who were present, prelates and cardinals, wished to leave and had already risen. Then the soldiers who were on guard in the background also retired, and our men (i.e., the friends of Hus) went near the window, and Lord John of Chlum, Lord Venceslas of Lestna and P. the bachelor of arts, still remained within. These men the king, it appears, did not notice, but thought that