failed fortune, nor she me; and although blind, I always perceived what ought to be done. I have fought eleven times with standards displayed, and I have always conquered. I was unceasingly seen defending the cause of the unfortunate and the poor, against sensual and bloated priests, and therefore did God sustain me. If their hatred did not oppose it, I should be reckoned among the most illustrious; and yet, in spite of the pope, my bones repose in this holy place."

In the biography of Zisca published at Prague,! another epitaph is given, more in keeping with the character of the man, and which may have been inscribed after the former was defaced. "Here rests John Zisca, the leader of oppressed freedom in the name and for the name of God." We are told, moreover, that not far from his tomb was engraved the inscription-" Huss, here reposes John Zisca, thy avenger; and the emperor himself has quailed before him."

Zisca's person was of middle stature, of a strong and muscular frame, especially in the shoulders and chest. His head was large, round, and closely shaven. His nose was aquiline, and his long moustaches added to the ferocity of a countenance that spoke out, in its bold and eagle eye, the penetration and the energy of the man. His complexion was dark and bilious, bespeaking his capacity for long and patient endurance; and his forehead presented that indenture, falling perpendicularly down it, which has been remarked in several famous war

1 Edition of 1789.

CH. XVI.]

GENIUS OF ZISCA.

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riors-and has in consequence been called the martial line.1

His outward aspect was no unworthy index of the spirit within. In all that pertained to war or strategy, Zisca was the man of his age, and it is even doubtful whether the world has ever presented any leaders of armies who might not be honored by being accounted rivals of Zisca in ability. With a kingdom rent by dissensions, and the weaker and less powerful class only on his side, he had to repel successive assaults from armies immensely superior, and led by able generals. He had to stand-singlehanded as it were-against the hosts of Christendom animated by the spirit of religious bigotry, and breathing exterminating vengeance against all that bore the name of Huss, or expressed sympathy for him. But he met the tide successfully; he stemmed it and turned it back. In the most desperate circumstances, he never quailed or wavered. Unforeseen and overwhelming difficulties only brought out the inexhaustible resources of his genius and sagacity, and he never offered to capitulate, but always waited to accept terms of surrender from the foe. He did not make his suit to Prague, but Prague made its suit to him. He did not solicit the emperor's alliance; the emperor, however, solicited his. The tactics, equipage, and defences of his army, as well as their unshrinking courage and resolute energy, betrayed the impress, and manifested at once the sagacity and the inspiring power of Zisca's genius. His enemies might condemn him as a heretic. They

1 Bonnechose.

might blacken his memory with charges of crimes that make us shudder, but his ability as a general, and his unapproachable mastery in the art of conducting battles and managing armies, were never questioned.

What his real character was as a man, is somewhat more doubtful. His enemies have drawn his portrait; and no friendly hand, unless that which inscribed his epitaph, has rescued it from their caricature. It is evident that his soul glowed with the deepest resentment and indignation at the wrongs of Huss, and the injustice of the council that ordered his execution. He saw a whole nation virtually condemned unheard, and hemmed around by a league of Christendom, marshalled by a papal crusade to carry out the sentence. He felt himself called to be an avenger of the wronged, and he fulfilled his mission with an inexorable severity. No tears flowed from his blind eyes. Pity was in his view a weakness, of which he was rarely known to be guilty. His system of army discipline was inflexibly rigid, and it extended to all the acts and circumstances of a state of war. It was truly a military code, and every infraction was punished with death.

Zisca was undoubtedly ambitious, as he was cruel, but grosser vices were foreign to his character. He distributed the plunder to the army, never anxious to retain it himself. Every soldier was a brother, and that was the epithet which he employed in his familiar intercourse with his army. He was moreover a Bohemian in heart and soul.

He loved his

CH. XVI.]

CHARACTER OF ZISCA.

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country. He resented her wrongs, and burned to avenge her insulted honor. With too sound a mind to be carried away by fanaticism, he knew how to employ the fanaticism of others; and yet, in his own way he was scrupulously devout and religious. In spite of all his cruelty and his ambition, we must account him a great and an honest man, sincere in his convictions as he was terrible in his vengeance.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LAST CRUSADE. DEFEAT OF THE IMPERIALISTS.

THE COUNCIL OF SIENNA. ITS PERSECUTING DECREE. THE "ORPHANS."- PROCOPIUS MAGNUS. A NEW INVASION. DIET AT FRANKFORT. THE FOUR ARMIES. -DEFEAT OF THE IMPERIALISTS. VARIANCE BETWEEN THE CALIXTINES AND TABORITES. - CONVENTION AT BERAUN. IT PROVES FUTILE.-SIGISMUND'S CLAIMS. - MEASURES OF PROCOPIUS. HIS CAMPAIGNS. MARTIN V. URGES A CRUSADE.LETTER TO THE KING OF POLAND. - DIETS OF Presburg and Nuremberg. — THE FINAL CRUSADE. - LETTER OF THE CARDINAL LEGATE. LETTER OF THE BOHE

OCT. 11, 1424-JAN., 1432.

THE success of the Taborites was largely due to the impolitic and cruel measures of the papal party. At the very time when Zisca was most closely pressed by the imperialists, he found a most effective, although involuntary, ally in an unexpected quarter. In its thirty-ninth session, the council of Constance had decreed that another council should be convoked, to prosecute still further the reform which it assumed to have initiated. It was to be convoked within the space of six years from the close of its own sessions.

The council thus decreed, was convoked by a bull of Martin V., and its opening session was held at Pavia early in May, 1423. But the thin attendance, and the dread of the plague, which had commenced its ravages in the city, led to its transfer to Sienna, whither the members were directed to repair by the