era all about Libu[vs]a, so
all our doubts are dispelled. We have noticed the site, and that it is
admirably adapted to defence, a rocky eminence rising like a promontory
above the broad Vltava, its steep sides falling down to the river on the
eastern side, and to deep-cut valleys to north and south. The position
offers a wide view over the rolling plains to westward. It was from this
side chiefly that the attackers came--Germans in the cause of the Holy
Roman Empire, mercenaries of many nations that swelled the imperial
hosts arrayed against Protestant Bohemia, marauding armies of Swedes,
all these surged up against the walls and towers of Prague's Royal
Castle. They broke and passed away like the fleeting cloud shadows you
may watch floating across the fields and wooded slopes of Jilove,
[vC]erny Kostelec and Zbraslav to the blue hills of Hrade[vs]in beyond.
But the castle still stands a sentinel over ancient Prague.

It must have been a pleasant post, that of sentry upon a look-out tower
of the Castle of Prague. What with the ever-changing beauty of the
landscape and the chance of noticing a hostile force approaching with
colours flying and spear-heads a-glitter in the sun, with, moreover, a
prospect of a fight, a sentry's life should have been a happy one. It
would be expected of the sentry that he should not be so held by the
fascination of the scene as to omit to report any unusual occurrence. I
have known such a thing happen even to an otherwise well-regulated
sentry. It was in Mandalay where from a wooden tower in the middle of
Fort Dufferin a sentry held watch and ward over the town. One bright
afternoon the town caught fire. The sentry was so much impressed by the
grandeur of the scene that he quite forgot to report the matter, and a
large part of the town was utterly destroyed. That man might have been
qualified as an artist, an author or a poet; as a sentry he was
disappointing.

There are no records of sentry yarns dating back to the really exciting
times in the history of the Hrad[vs]any; I have discovered only one, and
that of a comparatively recent date. The event narrated happened in the
autumn of 1753 at 11 p.m. The sentry was a grenadier; please note the
accuracy of detail which should dispel any doubt as to the truth of the
story--the grenadier touch is especially convincing. This grenadier, it
would seem, was posted in the inner court of the castle, probably at the
entrance to what is now the Minis