rague, which he wrote in the German tongue, and which on this
occasion we have ventured to translate into English.

Prague is the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, which, as if
protected by nature, is encompassed round with high mountains.
Throughout all Europe there is no soil in general more fertile or
better adapted to the plough. The fruits there are excellent and
great quantities of fowl are plentiful almost to excess, the cattle
are large and excellent. In fine nothing is poor, wretched or
miserable there except the people, who are slaves to their lords,
and never enjoy even the fruits of their own hard labour. But to
return to Prague, it is a city situated on a hill, part of it
stretching down the plain, having the river Muldau running through
it. The buildings are of so large extent that this city is divided
into three, and by some into four cities. The old city lies on the
east of the river, is exceedingly populous, and houses in that
quarter fair, but old-fashioned. Here is the quarter assigned unto
our nation (i.e., the Jews) where we enjoy greater privileges and
are treated with more lenity than in any other part of Germany. The
heads of our people deal to very great advantage in jewels and
precious stones dug out of the Bohemian mines. The lesser town on
the other side of the river is more beautiful in its building than
the old town, has fine gardens and stately palaces, among which
there is the famous one of Count Wallenstein, the magnificence of
which, may be the better guessed from our knowing that a hundred
houses were pulled down to make room for it. Its hall is thought one
of the finest in all Europe, its gardens are wonderfully stately,
and the stables which he built here for his horses are almost beyond
description, marble pillars parted the standing of each horse from
another. The racks were of polished steel, and their mangers of the
finest marble, and over the head of each stand was placed the figure
of each horse, as large as the life. This famous man who was the
greatest captain of his time, after having built this sumptuous
palace, re-established the Emperor's power, almost utterly broken by
the Swedes, growing at last too powerful for a subject, or as the
Germans say, endeavouring to make himself master of the Kingdom of
Bohemia, he was, if not by the command