CHAPTER II. 



THE SOLOMON OF BOHEMIA. 



"He never said a foolish thing 

 And never did a wise one." 



IN A BOLD rocky height overhanging a beautiful 

 \vooded ravine on the one side, and towering above 

 the river Moldau on the other, stands a group of 

 ancient edifices comprising a fortress, several 

 palaces and churches, which together with minor buildings 

 lining steep, narrow and crooked streets, form the quarter of 

 Prague known as the Hradschin. On this noble site royal 

 castles have stood for more than a thousand years, and one 

 of the earliest Christian churches of Bohemia was erected here 

 in the year 874. Most imposing in appearance, at the time 

 of which we write, was an ancient palace with an ornate 

 faade and a dome at each corner, the residence of the ex- 

 tremely rich and influential Prince William von Rosenberg, 

 Knight of the Golden Fleece, a magnate of such high degree 

 that when he was Ambassador to Poland he had been offered 

 the throne of that country, and under Rudolph he filled a 

 most important imperial office. This palace was connected 

 by an underground, secret passage with the royal castle, 

 partly for the convenience of the reigning monarch who se- 

 cured thereby a private exit in case of siege, and partly on 

 account of the imperial bureau of finance which had occupied 

 a portion of the building since the destructive fire of 1541. 



10 



