shment; he might even lose his head for such
temerity; anyway, his property would go to the senior member of the new
guild.

* * * * *

Thus spake the King. Furthermore, he ordained that this worshipful guild
which did so much towards encouraging cleanly habits should hold as its
crest or cognizance within a garland argent and azure, a kingfisher
proper. Some chroniclers suggest that the bird was a parrot, but this
seems unlikely--parrots can be so indiscreet. Moreover, you may see for
yourself on the Old Town side of the tower of the Charles Bridge the
bird within the garland, and will recognize it at once for a kingfisher.

Let us watch the pageant that crosses the bridge that Charles built.
They pass in the serene atmosphere which, to my thinking, enveloped the
city in the Golden Age of Charles "the Father of his Country." They
hurry to and fro under the lurid light of civil war waged in the name of
religion; they linger on the bridge looking to the sky and its
reflections in the water, under the false light which precedes disaster,
or move mournfully cast down by the lowering clouds of oppression, to
revive when Prague came into her own again one crisp October morning in
1918.

Charles, it seems, lived in the Royal Castle a good deal. We may see him
crossing the bridge he built, to look to the progress of the work he was
engaged upon. Perchance he was deep in thought on high matters of State,
on his Golden Bull which reaffirmed all the privileges granted to
Bohemia. This Bull caused a coolness between him and the Pope, whose
indefinite claims to interfere in German elections were certainly
restricted by that engine. Around him the populace would be talking of
the great preachers, Conrad Waldhauser and Mili[vc] of
Krom[ve][vr]i[vz]e, whom the King protected in their fiery onslaught on
the abuses in the Church and immorality of the children of their time.
Charles may have thought all this very beautiful but unlikely to last.
He saw clouds arising, and they closed over Bohemia when he died.

Of the works that Charles constructed for the beautifying of his
capital, several are reflected in the waters of Vltava. There is, for
instance, the bridgehead tower on the Mala Strana side, a graceful
monument to Charles's gracious days. You may notice on passing under the
gateway from the bridge the figure of a witch carved in stone, complete
with broom and general air of nocturnal enterprise.