Upon these conditions
the king promised to spare the rebellious city, and to pardon all the
offenders, excepting a few of the most prominent, whom he was determined
to punish with such severity as to prove an effectual warning to all
others.
The prisoners were terrified into the immediate ratification of these
hard terms. They were then all released, excepting forty, who were
reserved for more rigorous punishment. In the same manner the king sent
a summons to all the towns of the kingdom; and by the same terrors the
same terms were extorted. All the rural nobles, who had manifested a
spirit of resistance, were also summoned before a court of justice for
trial. Some fled the kingdom. Their estates were confiscated to
Ferdinand, and they were sentenced to death should they ever return.
Many others were deprived of their possessions. Twenty-six were thrown
into prison, and two condemned to public execution.
The king, having thus struck all the discontented with terror, summoned
a diet to meet in his palace at Prague. They met the 22d of August,
1547. A vast assemblage was convened, as no one who was summoned dared
to stay away. The king, wishing to give an intimation to the diet of
what they were to expect should they oppose his wishes, commenced the
session by publicly hanging four of the most illustrious of his
captives.
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