It was an extraordinary affair, but in truth the flight was less due to
terror than to disinclination of the German soldiers to fight the
Hussites, whose cause they deemed to be just and glorious, and the
influence of whose opinions had spread far beyond the Bohemian border.
Rome was losing its hold over the mind of northern Europe outside the
limits of the land of Huss and Ziska.
Negotiations for peace followed. The Bohemians were invited to Basle,
being granted a safe-conduct, and promised free exercise of their
religion coming and going, while no words of ridicule or reproach were
to be permitted. On January 9, 1433, three hundred Bohemians, mounted on
horseback, entered Basle, accompanied by an immense multitude. It was a
very different entrance from that of Huss to Constance, nearly twenty
years before, and was to have a very different termination. Procop Holy
headed the procession, accompanied by others of the Bohemian leaders. A
signal triumph had come to the party of religious reform, after twenty
years of struggle.
For fifty days the negotiations continued.
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