onsiders it
fit to do so. That point is now within reach. From the first I warned
you that this is not a guide-book, and therefore not under the
obligation of giving you a full and detailed catalogue of all the sights
of Prague and how to see them. There is little more that I propose to
tell you, it being my object to entice you out here to see for yourself.
I will wait for you on my terrace, if you like, and while waiting will
cast a final glance round the scene that has, I confess, acquired a
strong hold of me.

The Hrad[vs]any, seen on a dull, chill day, always recalls to me what I
have read about those days since the Bohemians lost their all on the
White Mountain, until they broke free again only a few years ago. On
dull days the long, plain, featureless walls of the Hrad[vs]any seem the
very expression of life under the later Habsburg Kings of Bohemia. They
were, on the whole, worthy, well-meaning sovereigns, their chief trouble
being, it would seem, a hereditary incapacity for seeing any point of
view but that to which their forbears, Jesuit-trained, and of limited
outlook, had educated them. They were quite impervious to new ideas,
very tenacious of old ones, and fully convinced of their own divine
right. The Habsburg line of policy towards Bohemia was laid down by
Ferdinand II--or shall I say for that monarch?--at the Te Deum sung in
St. Stephen's Cathedral, at Vienna, to celebrate the victory of Rome
over Bohemia's religious freedom. It would seem as if the King had
moulded his policy on the text of the sermon preached by Brother
Sabrinus, the Capuchin friar, on that occasion: "Thou shalt break them
with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel." In carrying out this policy the King of Bohemia was ably
assisted by the Jesuits. This congregation had been introduced into
Bohemia by a former Ferdinand whose acquaintance we have made; the
Jesuits had therefore stores of useful local knowledge at their command
when they set about complementing the material victory won on the White
Mountain by a spiritual conquest. The first thing was to re-establish
Roman ritual, and the church chosen for this act was St.
Martin's-in-the-Wall, where, as I have told you, the Sacrament was first
given in both kinds by Jacobelius in 1414. Then it was thought fit to
remove the statue of King George Podiebrad from the west front of the
Tyn Church. The effigy showed this national hero pointing with his drawn
s