peace were fruitless of results, another crusade was preparing against Bohemia. This was again to be commanded by Cardinal Henry, who sailed from England with a force of 5,000 men. But when he landed on the Continent, he received orders from the English king to go instead to the aid of the English in France. He was exceedingly reluctant to give up the crusade; but his troops were glad to go, and doubtless would have deserted his standard had he refused to obey the order. The cardinal’s failure to come to their assistance so discouraged the German princes, that nothing was accomplished that year.
The Bohemians, however, were not idle. Led by Prokop the Great, they invaded Lusatia, took several towns, and returned home with immense spoils. Another plundering expedition was made the same year by the united armies of the Taborites, Pragites, and Orphans. The army numbered 40,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 2,500 wagons. They marched northward to revenge themselves upon the Germans in those countries, who had shown themselves to be their most bitter enemies. Their object was not conquest, but to harass the enemy according to the principle adopted at the beginning of their taking the offensive—“Vexatio dat intellectum.” At Leipsic a large army, commanded by the Margrave of Brandenburg, prepared to obstruct their march. The Hussites, placing their carts in order, went to meet the enemy. There was some skirmishing; but the great battle that both sides expected never took place, and the Hussites continued their plundering expedition. An old chronicler says: “Then the Bohemians divided, so that each division with its wagons marched independently of the other, and the five
