genius.[1] It is here particularly to be regretted that contemporary evidence is very scanty. We can only conjecture that the Hungarians everywhere retreated when Žižka advanced, and that not being able to give battle he determined to retreat when he could not find sufficient supplies for his soldiers in a country which the Hungarians themselves had ravaged. I will quote the account of a contemporary chronicler[2] which, though often vague as regards topography and chronology, is interesting as giving a good insight into Žižka’s methods of warfare. The chronicler writes: “When the brethren had remained some time in Moravia they persuaded him [Žižka] to undertake a more distant expedition.[3] Then he fitted out four columns of wagons, and with as many guns as he could collect crossed the hills and marched into Hungary. The Hungarians did not oppose his advance, nor interfere with him. They wished to ascertain if some of his men would leave the ranks, hoping then to defeat him. For they had assembled against him a large force of horsemen, and when they had all joined they marched against him, and they had a large number of guns. And he [Žižka], seeing that he could do no good, turned back his wagons in the direction of the land of Moravia and thus disposed them: first he assembled all the men near the wagons, and then continued his march with closed wagons.[4] And thus did he dispose the wagons at the flanks, that he placed between the wagons[5] two shields, and behind each shield two or three shooters; and he did this for this purpose that, should they [the Hungarians] on the march attempt to jump into the wagons, these men should prevent it. On that day the
- ↑ All contemporary writers, even those hostile to Žižka, write with great praise of this campaign. Recently Professor Léger has compared it with Xenophon’s Anabasis.
- ↑ “Scriptores rerum Bohemicarum,” Vol. III. p. 77, ff.
- ↑ This is certainly incorrect. Žižka undoubtedly acted on his own initiative.
- ↑ The meaning is that the troops were shut up in the wagons.
- ↑ That is, in the space between two wagons which followed each other.
