ambitious plans of this determined character by their
perpetual opposition.

It is the beginning of this unhappy period which is described in the
following narrative. It is taken from the report of a merchant in
Bolkenhain,[5] named Martin, the fragment of his notes which we
possess, published by Heinrick Hoffman (in Scriptores rerum Lusaticarum
I., 1839).

"In the year of our Lord 1425, the Hussites appeared one Saturday
evening before the town of Wuenschelburg. On Sunday, about the time of
vespers, they made breaches in the walls, and by their overwhelming
force gained an entrance. The people flew to the house of the mayor,[6]
which was a high stone building. When all the men and women had arrived
there, they set fire to the city from the mayor's house, and thought
thereby to save themselves; but the Bohemians waited till the fire had
burnt out, then rushed in a powerful body against the stone house,
endeavouring to storm and undermine it. Then followed a parley: the
mayor let himself down to the Hussites by means of a coarse tilt,[7]
that he might negotiate with them whether the citizens should be
allowed to go free. He was so long absent in the town that the people
began greatly to fear, especially the pastor of the town, who was
godfather to the mayor; he called out to them, asking whether the mayor
was still below, requiring him to show and report himself, and come
back to them; whereupon the mayor returned to the house and was again
drawn up. When he had come up, his godfather the pastor asked how it
had gone with him, and whether he had obtained from the enemy freedom
for himself and his chaplain. Then spake the mayor: 'No, godfather;
they give no mercy to priests!' Then the pastor and his chaplain were
sore troubled, and said, 'How miserably you abandon and betray me, be
God Almighty your judge. When aforetime I wished to fly, you bade me
remain with you, saying you would abide by me for good or for evil,
even unto death; and you said, Shall the shepherd fly from his sheep?
And now, alack, evil is the day, the sheep fly from the shepherd.' Then
spake the women and the citizens' wives to him, weeping, 'We will
disguise you and your chaplains, and will bring you down with us
safely.' Then spoke the pastor Herr Megerlein, 'That, please God, will
I never do. I must not disavow my office and dignity, for I am a priest
and not a woman; but look to it well, you men; see in what a pitiful
way you deliver me over to d