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The Story of Bohemia.

towns, and also several aldermen. Being put to torture, they pleaded guilty to the plot; but whether they really were guilty was never proved.

The news of this outbreak plunged the king into grief and wrath. Thus all his efforts to bring back the country into pre-Hussite paths were brought to naught at one blow. His most faithful officers were dead, and the Calixtines held their heads higher than they had dared to do for years. The king determined to mete out some signal punishment to the city of Prague, and to this end began to raise an army. To prevent Kuttenberg from following the example of Prague, he sent a force of 8,000 men to that city; but it was already too late. The royal army found the city so well fortified that it gave up the siege and returned to Caslau. When the king himself appeared before Kuttenberg, he was allowed to enter the city, but only with a small retinue.

A Diet was held at Caslau; but as about half of the delegates were Calixtines, and the king refused to make any concessions, nothing was accomplished. Another Diet was held at Kuttenherg, and there the trouble was settled. The citizens of Prague agreed to go out to meet their king, to humble themselves before him, to do him all honor; but, at the same time, they insisted that the Compactata must be kept as well as all the privileges granted to the people by Sigmund. King Vladislav was exceedingly reluctant to comply with this demand; but when he saw that the cause of the people was sustained by several powerful nobles, and also by the Italian Bishop Augustin, who possessed unbounded influence in the country, he at length accepted the terms, and returned to Prague, September