Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

expressed the consummate craft with which the
Jesuits had worked, and the criminal drowsiness
into which the Bohemians had permitted
themselves to fall.[5]
No method was left unattempted against the
Protestants. It was sought by secret intrigue to
invade their rights, and by open injury to sting
them into insurrection. At last, in 1618, they rushed
to arms. A few of the principal barons having met
to consult on the steps to be taken in this crisis of
their affairs, a sudden mandate arrived forbidding
their meeting under pain of death. This flagrant
violation of the Royal Charter, following on the
destruction of several of their churches, irritated
the Reformed party beyond endurance. Their anger
was still more inflamed by the reflection that these
bolts came not from Vienna, but from the Castle of
Prague, where they had been forged by the junto
whose head-quarters were at the Hardschin.
Assembling an armed force the Protestants crossed
the Moldau, climbed the narrow street, and
presented themselves before the Palace of
Hardschin, that crowns the height on which New
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