lation, must have been thankful when at last he was
knocked on the head at Crecy. The story is well known to us all, so we
need not linger on it. John bequeathed his motto to the Black Prince,
who could well afford to pay a graceful compliment by accepting it;
after all, not he, but Bohemia, had to pay for John's fun. John kept the
mint of his country busy striking ducats, a coin of his own conception,
a very good and full-weight coin too, but he probably took most of the
ducats abroad for his various diversions; there are, however, a few left
in the museum of Prague, I believe. John had quaint ways of raising
money; one of them must have led to a great deal of inconvenience to the
citizens of Prague, who on Sundays and holidays were wont to make
excursions into the country. No one was allowed a drink within a certain
radius of the capital; this was all very fine for the publicans of
Prague, who no doubt had come to a suitable arrangement with the King,
but it fills me with sorrow to reflect on the streams of excursionists
and travellers doing the last lap home on a hot summer's day.

There is nothing of beauty in the panorama of Prague as seen from my
terrace, which I can ascribe to Bohemia's chivalrous and eccentric King.
He was too busy spending his country's wealth in trying to settle other
people's quarrels, and raising others of his own, to think of
beautifying his capital. Nevertheless I could point out to you traces of
beautiful work for which John may indirectly derive some credit. This
enterprising monarch had, as I have already mentioned, found occasion to
go fighting about in Italy. He was induced thereto by the usual
picturesque lack of sufficient reason just at the moment when he was
attempting something useful. John's predecessor on the throne, Henry of
Carinthia, with whom he had become reconciled, had no male heirs, so
Bohemia's King called on Henry at Innsbruck in order to arrange a
marriage between the former's second son John Henry and the latter's
daughter Margaret, known in German history as Maultasche, of whom
Carlyle speaks so unkindly. While at Innsbruck, John was invited by the
Lombard town of Brescia to assist it against the Lord of Verona, Mastino
della Scala. King John at once dropped the useful business, dashed in
amongst the squabbling Italians and won a number of victories which gave
him possession of a fair slice of Italy. He proved quite incapable of
holding it, and his gains rapidly mel