Page:The letters of John Hus.djvu/196

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158
LETTERS WRITTEN ON THE

of this, knowing that God sent him against me to say evil things of me for my sins, and to test my power and willingness to endure suffering. Barons Lacembok and John Kepka[1] had an audience with the Pope, and spoke with him about me. He replied that he desired no violence to be done. ’Tis reported, though on poor authority, that Benedict, the Pope of the Spaniards, is on his way to the Council. We heard to-day that the Duke of Burgundy,[2] with the Duke of Brabant, had left the field, and that King Sigismund in three days ought to be at Aachen and be crowned, and that the Pope and the Council should be on the lookout for him. But as Aachen is seventy [German] miles from here, I imagine that the King will scarcely arrive before Christmas. I think therefore that the Council, if not dissolved, will perhaps end about Easter. The living here is dear, a bed costing half a florin a week. Horses are cheap: one bought in Bohemia for six guineas is given away here for seven florins.[3] Baron Chlum and myself sent our horses to a town called Ravensburg, four [German] miles off. I think it will not be long before I shall be hard up for common necessaries. Mention therefore my anxiety on this score among my friends, whom it would take too long to name and it would be irksome to think of separately.

  1. i.e., Barons Henry and John of Chlum. See p. 139.
  2. Dux Burgundiæ. I imagine that this a slip, whether on Hus’s part or the copyist’s, for ‘dux Berg.’ See supra, p. 156. So far as I know, the Duke of Burgundy had nothing to do with the matter. But Adolph of Berg was up in arms because Sigismund did not support his brother’s claim to the vacant archbishopric of Cologne. See Aschbach, Kaiser Sigmund, i. 401–9.
  3. i.e., a third the price. For prices at Constance, see Hardt, v. 50–52.