as, and spoke their language well,
which feat, it appears, John never attempted. Father and son seldom
agreed on any subject; probably John considered Charles no sportsman,
and told him so frequently. I cannot imagine John's conversation as
anything but _ad hominem_, and his jokes as weighty as a kick from a
troop-horse, and as pleasant. With a little thinking you can find
another, quite recent monarch, who takes after John of Luxemburg in some
respects, though he failed to achieve such a picturesque ending. And the
occasion of John's chivalrous exit arose out of his second marriage. It
really makes a pretty picture if you try to figure to yourself John and
his son Charles setting out together for Paris both with the intention
of marrying a French Princess, for John, undeniably brave, was braced up
for this second venture. John married Beatrice of Bourbon, Charles
Blanche of Valois; if I know anything of John, he probably stayed in
Paris, whereas Charles would hurry back to Prague to continue his
programme of improvements. Amongst these improvements is one directly
inspired by Blanche, his "snow-white" bride, which you may see to this
day. I could just point it out to you, the Church of "St. Mary of the
Snow," but it is difficult to pick out among the sea of roofs. Although
it is the tallest church in Prague, it no longer has steeple or spire
pointing to the sky; whatever of the kind there was disappeared during
some street-fighting or other which frequently took place around this
church. If you follow the Narodni T[vr]ida straight along from the river
towards the Vaclavske Nam[ve]sti you will see "St. Mary's of the Snow"
on the right, tucked away behind some quaint old buildings formerly the
Carmelite Monastery founded by Charles.

It would seem that Charles, when in doubt, either built a new church or
restored an old one. There was a good deal to do in Prague in the latter
line of business especially, and Charles, with the real founder's zeal,
set about putting his capital in order. He was rather handicapped by an
expensive father, who, however, had no particular objection to repairing
religious institutions, his trouble being that he generally had no money
left for constructive work after he had been round dealing out
destruction, impelled thereto by his chivalrous conceit. I can quite
imagine John as a man subconsciously religious and intermittently
pious, so, for instance, he would probably invoke all the saints he