noticeable difference
with exception of the inverted circumflex, which makes "ye" out of plain
"e." This is nothing to what the Czech language can do in the way of
tongue-twisters.

The Vaclavske Nam[ve]sti rises gently towards another hill of Prague,
Vinohrady. At the top of the rise, looking right down the broad avenue
over the old town and beyond it to the Hrad[vs]any, is an equestrian
statue of St. Wenceslaus. There are other likenesses of the Saint; a
number of them adorn his chapel in the Cathedral of St. Vitus, and
another statue stands near the castle entrance on the Hrad[vs]any, in
the latter Wenceslaus is shown looking out over the city, his hand
upraised in blessing, which is right and proper and quite what the city
expects of him. The equestrian statue is the most recent portrait of the
pious prince, and is really quite convincing. We know, or at least I am
about to tell you, that Wenceslaus was a man of peace, he is therefore
represented carrying a lance; the modern sense of propriety requires of
a non-combatant that he should sit for his portrait armed. He need not
introduce a bunch of bombs or a pot of poison gas into the composition,
a sword will do. Wenceslaus brought his lance much as the up-to-date
war-winner girds on a sword when he goes to be photographed. Swords may
also be worn at weddings, at funerals, also at christenings I believe;
anyway, on all filmable occasions.

As far as I can discover, St. Wenceslaus only had one fight in his life,
and then he got killed.

Now that we have arrived at the first of authentically dated rulers over
Bohemia, Wenceslaus I, 928-935, we may as well take a look round the
Europe of that time. We find first of all that the peoples were capable
of getting into just as bad a mess as they are in to-day, and that
without the aid of any new diplomacy, League of Nations and
International Conferences. England was, so to speak, nowhere in those
days; Englishmen did not wander about the Continent making observations
from terraces, did not even launch missions and commissions on harmless
and unsuspecting countries, in order to impress the inhabitants thereof
with our wealth and our good taste in getting rid of it. England was
very busy with the Scots, Welsh and Danes, who were also causing a deal
of trouble to the broken-up remnants of Charlemagne's Empire. The ideal
of the Holy Roman Empire still lived and inspired a host of adventurous
Counts of the Marches and other be