informed Huss that he was to be kept under guard. In vain did John of Chlum hasten to the pontiff, who was still in audience with the cardinals, and complain that he had broken his pledged word to protect Huss against violence. He again appealed to the promise given by Sigismund. The cardinals present the pope called to witness that the arrest was none of his doings and, drawing John aside, whispered: “You know how I stand with the cardinals. They gave him over to me. I had to receive him as a captive.” The Franciscan monk, so he stated, had not been sent by him and was a base fellow.
That night Huss was taken to the house of a canon of Constance, where a cardinal was lodging. After a week’s detention he was removed. December 6, 1414, to the Dominican convent, where he remained in close confinement until the last of March, 1415. Here he was thrown into a dungeon hard by the latrines. Carpenters and other mechanics had been engaged for several days in repairing the bolts and locks and in putting up six beds and a stove for the guards.
The old Black Friars’ convent was transformed, in 1875, into the Insul Hotel, one of the most picturesque stoppingplaces in all Europe. Founded in 1236, it was the retreat which Amandus Suso entered, and where he gave himself up to the most painful and exaggerated self-mortifications. Here Chrysoloras was formally received by the council, and here he died, 1415. Here the French and Italian nations sat during the sessions of the council. The convent withstood the siege of the Swedes in 1633, during the Thirty Years’ War. In the period of the Reformation it had been used as a hospital. Taken over with the city of Constance by Austria in 1649, it was again occupied by the friars. In 1785 Joseph II turned it over to a colony from Geneva with their looms. More recently Count Zeppelin was born there. The chapel, with its vaulted roof, now serves as the hotel dining-room. Surrounded by an attractive garden and with
