Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

Instead of setting up the scaffold at once, the
conquerors published an amnesty to all who should
lay down their arms. The proclamation was as
welcome as it was unexpected, and many were
caught, who otherwise would have saved their lives
by flight. Some came out of their hiding places in
the neighborhood, and some returned from distant
countries. For three months the talk was only of
peace. It was the sweet piping of the fowler till the
birds were snared. At length came the doleful 20th
of February, 1621.
On that evening fifty chiefs of the Bohemian
nation were seized and thrown into prison. The
capture was made at the supper-hour. The time was
chosen as the likeliest for finding every one at
home. The city captains entered the house, a wagon
waited at the door, and the prisoners were ordered
to enter it, and were driven off to the Tower of
Prague, or the prisons of the magistrate. The thing
was done stealthily and swiftly; the silence of the
night was not broken, and Prague knew not the
blow that had fallen upon it.
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