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You have seen how one after another these giants of Bohemia saw their plans brought to nought. Ottokar II succumbed to the first Habsburger that threw his shadow over Bohemia. The successors of Charles and George Podiebrad could not stand up against the forces of reaction that beat down Bohemia's efforts towards finding herself and taking her rightful place in the comity of nations.
It was more than a tribute to the days of old it marked the passing of the old San Francisco and the inauguration of the new. It was Bohemia's Swan Song, sung by those to whom San Francisco held more than pleasure more than sentimentality. It held for them close-knit ties that nothing less than a worldshaking cataclysm could sever and the cataclysm had arrived.
A roguish gleam of the Rhine toward Nonnenwerth could be already made out, Roland's Corner hanging like a sentinel across the chanting island, as one top-heavy with long watch. Aunt Lisbeth was a great proficient in the art, and had taught Margarita. The little lady learnt it, with many other gruesome matters, in the Palatine of Bohemia's family.
It is unnecessary to add long comments to this clear and explicit state paper which forms a veritable pledge on the part of France to secure Czecho-Slovak independence. It is a recognition of Bohemia's right to independence and of the National Council as the supreme organ of the Czecho-Slovak nation abroad.
I shall have more to say about this wonderful heraldic animal on some future occasion; it is significant that this crest swings over the sacred fane where rest the remains of St. Wenceslaus, over the cradle of Bohemia's religious life. You will remember Libuša's vision of an endless succession of little Přemysls.
King Charles seems to have acquired the same general regard for those two saints, and this may have decided him to found a monastery on the rocky eminence whereon Emaus has withstood many vicissitudes during the stormy course of several centuries of Bohemia's history.
Once we were playing, when thy shuttlecock Glanced off and struck my aunt, Bohemia's queen, Full in the face! She thought 'twas with intent, And all in tears complained unto the king. The palace youth were summoned on the spot, And charged to name the culprit. High in wrath The king vowed vengeance for the deed: "Although It were his son, yet still should he be made A dread example!"
Tábor, however, takes me rather too far afield; I mentioned it for the benefit of those who study archæology; these will find interesting instances of Bohemia's fifteenth-century architecture in this the stronghold of Žižka and the followers of Hus. In these my reflections on things seen and noted from "a Terrace in Prague" I have endeavoured to arouse your interest in this grand old city.
They were quite impervious to new ideas, very tenacious of old ones, and fully convinced of their own divine right. The Habsburg line of policy towards Bohemia was laid down by Ferdinand II or shall I say for that monarch? at the Te Deum sung in St. Stephen's Cathedral, at Vienna, to celebrate the victory of Rome over Bohemia's religious freedom.
Anyway, I do not anticipate any strained relations between the Republics of Czecho-Slovakia and Poland on this account; both countries are more interested in a yet older fossilized form of creation coal to wit. With the best will in the world it is difficult to rise to any enthusiasm over the majority of Bohemia's rulers in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
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