fication known as the wagonburg; but this will be spoken of in another connection.
While Žižka was making fortifications at Tabor and organizing an army out of the peasants that flocked thither from all directions, the Emperor Sigmund was likewise making preparations for war, but on so grand a scale that the heart of a less intrepid warrior than Žižka would surely have failed him. Large bodies of men were recruited from all his dominions—from Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia. Nor was this all. Pope Martin raised against Bohemia the most dreadful weapon that could be used in those days—a crusade was declared against the country, in which all nations were invited to participate, abundant indulgences being promised to all who should aid it either in person or by contributing funds. Sigmund invited the princes of Germany to meet him in Breslau, to consult together how, at one blow, they could crush out all opposition in Bohemia. The arrival of the distinguished guests at Breslau was honored by an act of signal cruelty. John Krasa, a citizen of Prague, being in Breslau on business, was ordered to be arrested, because he had defended Hus and had taken communion in both kinds; and when he refused to recant, was dragged about the city tied to a horse’s tail, and afterwards burned alive. After these preliminary proceedings, Sigmund had the Pope’s legate proclaim the crusade, and then preparations were made to invade Bohemia.
The news of these proceedings filled the land with consternation. The people saw that the coming contest was to be a life-and-death struggle for them, and they prepared to meet it like men.
