in a deserted hut, and, unmindful of their pitiful cries, their promises that they would conform to the “Four Articles,” the hut was set afire, and they were left to perish in the flames.
This horrible deed was overmatched by one committed by the Kuttenbergers, February, 1421. The town of Chotebor, having fallen into the hands of the Taborites, under their leader Hromadka, was again besieged by a band of miners from Kuttenberg. Being hard pressed, Hromadka agreed to surrender, on condition that the garrison should retire unharmed. But no sooner did the miners gain possession of the town, than, totally disregarding their word of honor, they seized three hundred of the Taborite soldiers, shut them up in barns, and burned them alive. Some four hundred more were reserved for even a worse fate, being hurled alive into mines and left to perish of starvation. The leader, Hromadka, with two Taborite priests, was taken to Chrudim, and all burned in the public market-place.
These acts of barbarism were somewhat counterbalanced by those of Žižka, at the siege of Chomoutov, the following month. The city was strongly fortified, and, the inhabitants, feeling perfectly secure, roused the besiegers to the highest pitch of fury by their taunts, imprecations, and blasphemies. In their madness the Taborites attacked the walls with such fury that an opening was made in several places at once, upon which the infuriated soldiers rushed into the city, murdering every one they met, sparing only some women and children, and leaving thirty men alive, to bury their neighbors, as they said. About 2,500 persons perished in Chomoutov on that day.
