ere the President's
standard flies, a black flag floated on the morning breeze. The same
black note was repeated at the Czech National Theatre, and elsewhere
black banners waved out over the streets. This 21st of June was a day of
mourning for the children of Prague; on that day they remembered the
events of three centuries ago, events which robbed them of their rights
as a sovereign people, and fixed them firmly, ruthlessly, under the yoke
of Habsburg. It was the commemoration day for those who had made the
supreme sacrifice for the faith that was in them. The battle of the
White Mountain had been lost, and with it went the last remnant of those
able to resist the encroaching Austrians and the band of adventurers
who, under the cloak of religion, waged savage war in this fair country.

The cause of the trouble is far to seek. It arose from a characteristic
of these Slavonic people which should endear them to us, namely, a very
strong feeling of race and its responsibilities and a great tenacity
when defending their political and religious liberty. It is particularly
in the latter direction that the people of Bohemia and Moravia have been
in close touch with English thought. They were among the first, perhaps
the only people of the Continent, to embrace the tenets of Wycliffe, and
they fought for their convictions during the weary vicissitudes of the
Hussite wars. There were many Germans among those who took to the new
religious thought; Germans who had made their home in Bohemia and
Moravia, and were among the most earnest workers for the country's
welfare. But the _Drang nach Osten_ of the Germans of the Holy Roman
Empire under its semi-independent Princes and Electors, all intent on
their own advancement, was a constant menace to the peaceful development
of the Bohemian and Moravian people. They were not protected from
invasion by the silver sea. Bohemia never had a sea-coast, despite the
descriptive scenery in _Measure for Measure_. And here, I fear, is
another shattered illusion. When Shakespeare spoke of Bohemia he meant
Apulia, which at one time was named Bohemundia, after its King Bohemund.
Bohemia has always been exposed to enemies from the west, who could pour
in over the passes from Saxony or Bavaria. So the stout resistance of
the Hussites was eventually broken, and the House of Habsburg, for some
time elected Kings of Bohemia, encroached more and more on the chartered
freedom of the country. A first definite