A part of Bohemia
rallied around the king in support of these atrocious measures.
But all the Protestants, and all who had any sympathy with the
Protestants, were exasperated to the highest pitch. They immediately
dispatched messengers to Matthias and to their friends in Moravia,
imploring aid. Matthias immediately started eight thousand Hungarians on
the march. As they entered Bohemia with rapid steps and pushed their way
toward Prague they were joined every hour by Protestant levies pouring
in from all quarters. So rapidly did their ranks increase that Leopold's
troops, not daring to await their arrival, in a panic, fled by night.
They were pursued on their retreat, attacked, and put to flight with the
loss of two thousand men. The ecclesiastical duke, in shame and
confusion, slunk away to his episcopal castle of Passau.
The contemptible Rhodolph now first proposed terms of reconciliation,
and then implored the clemency of his indignant conquerors. They turned
from the overtures of the perjured monarch with disdain, burst into the
city of Prague, surrounded every avenue to the palace, and took Rhodolph
a prisoner. Soon Matthias arrived, mounted in regal splendor, at the
head of a gorgeous retinue.
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