with sunset scarlet. The crown of all this terraced glory is the great
cathedral. A square massive tower stands up out of the body of the
church. A purist may find fault with the mixture of styles this tower
incorporates. The bulk of its structure is Gothic; at the base of the
superstructure appears a nondescript medley of styles (nondescript at
least in the eyes of a dilettante) out of which arises a concern of
domes and cupolas one above the other, supported at each corner by
little pinnacles crowned with onion-shaped tops. The copper coating of
these domes and cupolas gives a distinctive touch of colour to the whole
edifice of warm grey stone; this note of green you will find repeated
elsewhere on the churches and other buildings of Prague, a piquant note
but alien to the spirit of Prague both ancient and modern. There has
been talk of removing the superstructure from the main tower of the
cathedral and replacing it by a Gothic spire such as adorn the towers
that flank the west front of the building, spires that gleam like
lacework when standing out sunlit against dark banks of cloud. It were
best to leave the superstructure of the main tower as it is; it marks an
epoch and serves as reminder of a tyranny now overpast. The highest
point of the main tower is not adorned with a usual emblem of our faith,
a cross or a cock, but flaunts instead the "Lion of Bohemia" in all his
rampant pride of a double tail. I shall have more to say about this
wonderful heraldic animal on some future occasion; it is significant
that this crest swings over the sacred fane where rest the remains of
St. Wenceslaus, over the cradle of Bohemia's religious life.

You will remember Libu[vs]a's vision of an endless succession of little
P[vr]emysls. She overrated P[vr]emysl a bit as a good wife should, for
the P[vr]emysl dynasty ended abruptly with the murder of Wenceslaus III
in 1306 at the hand of some unknown assassins at Olomouc, by the Germans
called Olmuetz. Nevertheless, the family had had a good long spell of
life and plenty to keep them busy during those six or seven centuries;
it produced some very fine rulers; all honour to old farmer P[vr]emysl.
The first eleven scions of that line are very faint figures; they are
not even dated; only a few of them show more than a shadowy outline in
the mist of legend and dawning history. Of these early rulers there is
echo of one Mnata, who is said to have built the first stone house on
the Hrad[vs