an assault upon their wealth, and, in company with Sophia,
the widow of Wenceslas, they sent a deputation to the emperor, asking
him to make peace. He replied by swearing to take a fearful revenge on
the insurgents. The insurrection continued, despite this action of the
nobles and the threats of the emperor. Ziska, finding the citizens too
moderate, invited into the city the peasants, who were armed with
flails, and committed many excesses.

Forced by the moderate party to leave the city, Ziska led his new
adherents to Mount Tabor, which he fortified and prepared to defend.
They called themselves the "people of God," and styled their Catholic
opponents "Moabites," "Amalekites," etc., declaring that it was their
duty to extirpate them. Their leader entitled himself "John Ziska, of
the cup, captain, in the hope of God, of the Taborites."

But having brought the story of the Emperor Wenceslas to an end, we must
stop at this point. The after-life of John Ziska was of such stir and
interest, and so filled with striking events, that we shall deal with it
by itself, in a sequel to the present story.

_SEMPACH AND ARNOLD WINKELRIED._

Seventy years had passed since the battle of Morgarten, through which
freedom came to the lands of the Swiss. Throughout that long period
Austria had let the liberty-loving mountaineers alone, deterred by the
frightful lesson taught them in the bloody pass. In the interval the
confederacy had grown more extensive. The towns of Berne, Zurich,
Soleure, and Zug had joined it; and now several other towns and
villages, incensed by the oppression and avarice of their Austrian
masters, threw off the foreign yoke and allied themselves to the Swiss
confederacy. It was time for the Austrians to be moving, if they would
retain any possessions in the Alpine realm of rocks.

Duke Leopold of Austria, a successor to the Leopold who had learned so
well at Morgarten how the Swiss could strike for liberty, and as bold
and arrogant as he, grew incensed at the mountaineers for taking into
their alliance several towns which were subject to him, and vowed not
only to chastise these rebels, but to subdue the whole country, and put
an end to their insolent confederacy. His feeling was shared by the
Austrian nobles, one hundred and sixty-seven of whom joined in his
warlike scheme, and agreed to aid him in putting down the defiant
mountaineers.

War resolved upon, the Austrians laid a shrewd plan to fill the