are shown
a ring to which the saint is said to have clung when his murderers
hacked him down. The walls of the chapels are inlaid with the precious
stones of Bohemia--jasper and achates, chalcedon, amethyst and
carneol--and are adorned with frescoes illustrating incidents in the
life of the saint, most of them dating from the reign of Charles; the
scene of his martyrdom is from the brush of Lucas Cranach. The
candelabra and statue of St. Wenceslaus are attributed to Peter Fischer.
King Charles, the founder, father of his country, lies buried here with
his four wives, so do other Kings of Bohemia, Ladislas Posthumus, George
Podiebrad, Ferdinand I and Maximilian.

Looking out over my terrace to where the Cathedral of St. Vitus points
its tapering spires towards high heaven, a misty pageant seems to pass
beneath it. Following rapidly on the golden peace of Charles come the
troublous days of religious strife, for with his son began the Hussite
wars which left Bohemia desolate and a prey to the eagles of Habsburg.
Angry flames rising up out the township below the Hrad[vs]any cast
clouds of smoke over the cathedral what time the Hussites failed to
capture the Royal Castle and in their zeal for reform set fire to
various quarters of the Mala Strana. The Bishop's Palace, which stood
near the left bank bridgehead, was utterly destroyed, the glorious
Church of "St. Mary under the Chain," and with it the home of the
Knights of Malta, suffered the same fate. Of St. Mary's Church there
remain the chancel and two stout towers; I can see them from my
embowered terrace, the blunt red roofs rising above a glorious riot of
fruit blossom. The pageant moves on, giving a flash here and there of
some one who stood up above his fellows like George Podiebrad, or the
strong men who precipitated the Thirty Years' War. Then follows a
fleeting vision of a stranger King, a German Protestant with his wife
Elizabeth, daughter of "douce Jamie." A short reign this of Frederick
Count Palatine, the "Winter King." We see him enter by the Strahov Gate
to be crowned at St. Vitus on November 4, 1619. We may imagine the
indignation of his people at Frederick's Calvinist divines who wished to
remove the altar and paintings from the cathedral. We see Frederick a
year later, again entering the city by the Strahov Gate, fleeing in hot
haste from the stricken field of the White Mountain where Bohemia's
freedom went under before the foreign mercenaries of the Emper