This last
exploit stirred him to action. Concerting with some other princes of the
empire, he suddenly seized Wenceslas, carried him to Austria, and
imprisoned him in the castle of Wiltberg, in that country.
A fair disposal, this, of a man who was scarcely fit to run at large,
most reasonable persons would say; but all did not think so. John von
Goerlitz, the younger brother of the emperor, fearing public scandal from
such a transaction, induced the princes who held him to set him free. It
proved a fatal display of kindness and family affection for himself. The
imperial captive was no sooner free than, concealing the wrath which he
felt at his incarceration, he invited to a banquet certain Bohemian
nobles who had aided in it. They came, trusting to the fact that the
tiger's claws seemed sheathed. They had no sooner arrived than the claws
were displayed. They were all seized, by the emperor's order, and
beheaded. Then the dissimulating madman turned on his benevolent brother
John, who had taken control of affairs in Bohemia during his
imprisonment, and poisoned him.
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