by a few friends,
he stole out at one of the gates of the city, and putting spurs to his
horse, allowed himself no rest until he was safe within the walls of
Berlin, two hundred miles from Prague.

The despairing citizens, thus deserted by their sovereign, and with a
victorious foe at their very walls, had no alternative but to throw open
their gates and submit to the mercy of the conqueror. The next day the
whole imperial army, under the Duke of Bavaria, with floating banners
and exultant music, entered the streets of the capital, and took
possession of the palaces. The tyrant Ferdinand was as vengeful and
venomous as he was vigorous and unyielding. The city was immediately
disarmed, and the government intrusted to a vigorous Roman Catholic
prince, Charles of Lichtenstein. A strong garrison was left in the city
to crush, with a bloody hand, any indications of insurrection, and then
the Duke of Bavaria returned with most of his army to Munich, his
capital, tottering beneath the burden of plunder.

There was a moment's lull before the tempest of imperial wrath burst
upon doomed Bohemia. Ferdinand seemed to deliberate, and gather his
strength, that he might strike a blow which would be felt forever. He
did strike such a blow--one which has been remembered for two hundred
years, and which will not be forgotten for ages to come--one which
doomed parents and children to weary years of vagabondage, penury and
woe which must have made life a burden.

On the night of the 21st of January, three months after the
capitulation, and when the inhabitants of Prague had begun to hope that
there might, after all, be some mercy in the bosom of Ferdinand, forty
of the leading citizens of the place were simultaneously arrested. They
were torn from their families and thrown into dungeons where they were
kept in terrific suspense for four months. They were then brought before
an imperial commission and condemned as guilty of high treason. All
their property was confiscated, nothing whatever being left for their
helpless families. Twenty-three were immediately executed upon the
scaffold, and all the rest were either consigned to life-long
imprisonment, or driven into banishment. Twenty-seven other nobles, who
had escaped from the kingdom, were declared traitors. Their castles were
seized, their property confiscated and presented as rewards to Roman
Catholic nobles who were the friends of Ferdinand. An order was then
issued for all the nobl