ound a stern enemy in Ziska, who put them down with an unsparing
hand.

In 1421 Sigismund again roused himself to activity, incensed by the
Hussite defiance of his authority. He incited the Silesians to invade
Bohemia, and an army of twenty thousand poured into the land, killing
all before them,--men, women, and children. Yet such was the terror that
the very name of Ziska now excited, that the mere rumor of his approach
sent these invaders flying across the borders.

But, in the midst of his career of triumph, an accident came to the
Bohemian leader which would have incapacitated any less resolute man
from military activity. During the siege of the castle of Raby a
splinter struck his one useful eye and completely deprived him of sight.
It did not deprive him of power and energy. Most men, under such
circumstances, would have retired from army leadership, but John Ziska
was not of that calibre. He knew Bohemia so thoroughly that the whole
land lay accurately mapped out in his mind. He continued to lead his
army, to marshal his men in battle array, to command them in the field
and the siege, despite his blindness, always riding in a carriage, close
to the great standard, and keeping in immediate touch with all the
movements of the war.

Blind as he was, he increased rather than diminished the severity of his
discipline, and insisted on rigid obedience to his commands. As an
instance of this we are told that, on one occasion, having compelled his
troops to march day and night, as was his custom, they murmured and
said,--

"Day and night are the same to you, as you cannot see; but they are not
the same to us."

"How!" he cried. "You cannot see! Well, set fire to a couple of
villages."

The blind warrior was soon to have others to deal with than his Bohemian
foes. Sigismund had sent forward another army, which, in September,
1421, invaded the country. It was driven out by the mere rumor of
Ziska's approach, the soldiers flying in haste on the vague report of
his coming. But in November the emperor himself came, leading a horde of
eighty thousand Hungarians, Servians, and others, savage fellows, whose
approach filled the moderate party of the Bohemians with terror. Ziska's
men had such confidence in their blind chief as to be beyond terror.
They were surrounded by the enemy, and enclosed in what seemed a trap.
But under Ziska's orders they made a night attack on the foe, broke
through their lines, and, to the empero