of Bohemia. One of his hounds, when following a stag, having fallen into the boiling water, gave by his howling such indication of pain, as to cause the monarch and his retinue to approach the wells, where they saw with amazement the wonderful and high springing Sprudel, which no one, even to this day, can contemplate without admiration. The emperor, labouring under an infirmity in his leg, his physicians recommanded him to bathe in this spring; he built a castle near the hot waters, encouraged the neighbouring peasantry to settle there, and named his new town Carlsbad (Charles ’s bath).
A document, of a rather questionable nature, had grounded the belief that Charles IV had used our baths in November 1347, whilst residing at Ellbogen, for the healing of wounds received at Crécy, on the 26th August 1346, where he lost his father, the blind king John, under Philip VI of France, against Edward III of England. New researches (Almanach de Carlsbad, for 1835, ch. IX.) have however demonstrated, without controversy, that Charles was not in Bohemia from the beginning of October 1347 to the 19th February 1348. That he ever bathed in our hot springs is uncertain, not one word being said about it in his Life, written by himself, nor by any of his historians, who followed almost every step of that beloved sovereign. That he granted important privileges to Carlsbad, dated from Nuremberg 14th August 1370; that he gave his name to the town, and that he resided there in 1370 and 1376, are the only
