Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/324

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302
THE HUSSITE WARS

when it had been ratified by a general meeting of the diet of Bohemia.

It is probable that this decision did not immediately become public, for before the departure of the Bohemians several foreign ambassadors attempted, in a not always tactful manner, to interfere in these negotiations. Thus on April 3 Duke William of Bavaria arranged a meeting between the Bohemian delegates and the envoys whom the Duke of Burgundy had sent to the Council. The Burgundian ambassador expressed the hope that the Bohemians would conform to the decrees of the Council; for, he added, his master would otherwise be obliged to draw his sword in defence of the Council. Rokycan, who always studiously maintained the attitude of a prelate, answered in a conciliatory manner, but Lord Kostka of Postupic, a Utraquist noble and famed Hussite general, not unnaturally considered the threats of the Burgundian as an insult. He replied: “As to your threats, let your duke come to Bohemia; we will not fly from him, but will, with God’s grace, resist him, as we resisted our other invaders.” An interview which the Bohemians had shortly afterwards with the members of the embassy sent by the Duke of Savoy to the Council had a more cordial character. The leader of the embassy declared to the Bohemians, in the name of his duke, that that prince was ready to assist the glorious Bohemian kingdom both by sending armed forces and by financial aid, even at the price of his life, and that he was sending an embassy to Prague. In the name of the Bohemian delegates, Lord Kostka of Postupic warmly thanked the duke.

It had by this time been settled that the Bohemian envoys should leave Basel on April 14, and it was now the duty of the Council to choose representatives who were to accompany them. Among those chosen were Philibert, Bishop of Coutance in Normandy, Peter, Bishop of Augsburg, Doctor Ebendorfer of Haselbach, Canon of Vienna, now best remembered through his historical writings, which have several times been