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.
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