approved of their plans, and promised his aid. To give Sigismund time to return to Bohemia, it was decided that the crusaders should assemble on the feast of St. Bartholomew (August 24).
Of the second crusade against Bohemia scanty and insufficient record has come down to us. Five of the German Electors took part in the campaign, and the whole invading force, according to the most trustworthy sources, numbered 200,000 men. Numerous volunteers from all parts of Germany flocked to the standard of the Cross, and were rewarded by the cardinal legate Branda with absolutions and indulgences. It had been decided that the Germans should enter Bohemia from the west, by Cheb[1] whilst Sigismund and his son-in-law Albert, Duke of Austria, would invade the country from the east. The town of Kutna Hora in Eastern Bohemia still numbered many adherents of the papal cause, who were, therefore, also friendly to the cause of Sigismund.
The Germans marched through Western Bohemia burning the villages and murdering the inhabitants "more cruelly than heathens would have done." They began the siege of the town of Žatec,[2] and on September 17, 1421, made an attempt to storm it, but they were beaten back by the bravery of the Bohemian garrison of only 6000 men. The news that the army of the Praguers[3] was approaching, and disgust at Sigismund's failure to fulfil his promise of creating a diversion in Eastern Bohemia, caused the Germans to retreat precipitately and ingloriously.
Fortune here again favoured the Bohemians. Sigismund had but just completed his armaments when the last German soldiers left the soil of Bohemia. His troops and those of his son-in-law entered Moravia early in October. The supreme command of the army, which consisted of about 23,000 men, was entrusted to the Italian condottiere Pipa of Ozora. Moravia was soon subdued, and the easy conquest of the sister-land was not without its effect on Bohemia. Many of the Bohemian lords, whom the excesses of fanatics, both at Prague and at Tabor, had alienated from
