ceslaus was succeeded by Sigismond, his brother, who rendered himself
odious to the Reformers; and removed all such as were obnoxious to his
government. Zisca and his friends, upon this, immediately flew to arms,
declared war against the emperor and the pope, and laid siege to Pilsen
with 40,000 men. They soon became masters of the fortress, and in a
short time all the south-west part of Bohemia submitted, which greatly
increased the army of the reformers. The latter having taken the pass of
Muldaw, after a severe conflict of five days and nights, the emperor
became alarmed, and withdrew his troops from the confines of Turkey, to
march them into Bohemia. At Berne in Moravia, he halted, and sent
despatches to treat of peace, as a preliminary to which, Zisca gave up
Pilsen and all the fortresses he had taken. Sigismond proceeding in a
manner that clearly manifested he acted on the Roman doctrine, that no
faith was to be kept with heretics, and treating some of the authors of
the late disturbances with severity, the alarm-bell of revolt was
sounded from one end of Bohemia to the other. Zisca took the castle of
Prague by the power of money, and on the 19th of August, 1420, defeated
the small army the emperor had hastily got together to oppose him. He
next took Ausea by assault, and destroyed the town with a barbarity that
disgraced the cause in which he fought.

Winter approaching, Zisca fortified his camp on a strong hill about
forty miles from Prague, which he called Mount Tabor, from whence he
surprised a body of horse at midnight, and made a thousand men
prisoners. Shortly after, the emperor obtained possession of the strong
fortress of Prague, by the same means that Zisca had before done: it was
soon blockaded by the latter, and want began to threaten the emperor,
who saw the necessity of a retreat.

Determined to make a desperate effort, Sigismond attacked the fortified
camp of Zisca on Mount Tabor, and carried it with great slaughter. Many
other fortresses also fell, and Zisca withdrew to a craggy hill, which
he strongly fortified, and whence he so annoyed the emperor in his
approaches against the town of Prague, that he found he must either
abandon the siege or defeat his enemy. The marquis of Misnia was deputed
to effect this with a large body of troops, but the event was fatal to
the imperialists; they were defeated, and the emperor having lost nearly
one third of his army, retreated from the siege of Prague, hara