first decrees of the victors had expelled from Bohemia.
Komensky, as I have already mentioned, was one of those who availed themselves of the hospitality of Zerotin. As far as the rather uncertain accounts inform us, he did not live in the town of Brandeis, but in a cottage on the opposite bank of the Orlice, at the foot of the hill still called "Klopota." This is confirmed by the fact that Komensky has thus signed his Latin dedication of the "Labyrinth" to his patron: "Dabam sub Klopot Idibus, Dec. 1623." According to very old traditions, the wooden cottage or hut (the Bohemian "chalupa") in which he lived was of very ancient origin, having been built with his own hands by Brother Gregory,[1] one of the founders of the Unity.
Brandeis, on the Orlice, which will always be memorable to all Bohemians as the spot where Komensky wrote the "Labyrinth," was then already holy ground for a member of the Unity. It had been one of the earliest settlements of the brethren, and for a long time the dwelling-place of Brother Gregory, who had first organised the community. Here, too, Brother Gregory had died (in 1474), and had been buried, "like the prophets of the Old Testament, in a rock-grave near the bank of the Orlice—that is to say, opposite the castle."[2] The owners of
