“It will fall on you first,” he said. “Now. I will punish you in God’s name. Go on, Brother Smolík,” he said, addressing the gaunt-faced preacher. “Speak to them. Let them hear the voice of God’s truth before they depart this Earth. They won’t receive salvation, in any case, wretched dogs, minions of Rome, servants of the Babylonian Sigismund. But they will bid farewell to this Earth with lighter hearts.”

The preacher stood as stiff as a poker and took a deep breath.

“This is the Lord’s war!” he shouted squeakily. “So He has delivered you into our hands! You ate the bread of immorality and drank the wine of violence, so the day of punishment has come. You sinned against our Lord, so your blood will be splashed like dust and your bone marrow will be like mud. You sinned, O perverse nation, exalted yourselves proudly, bowed down before the false idols of Rome, so God will defeat you and cut off your heads as David did to Goliath. God crushes the heads of His foes, the tousle-haired skull of that which acts sinfully!”

“Good,” said Kroměšín. “I especially liked the tousle-haired skull. Although the bone marrow wasn’t bad either. Well, boys, did you hear? Take them as God ordered and Brother Smolík has reminded us. Do to them one after the other what David did to Goliath!”

“Mercy!” howled the bearded man in the blue cloak as he was dragged from the group. “Don’t kill us! Christians! Have mercy!”

The Taborites seized him, dragged him over to a wagon and rested his neck on the shaft. One of the Taborites stepped forward and swung an axe. He struck twice again, with the burgher wheezing and croaking and the blood gushing in streams. Finally, his head fell onto the blood-spattered cobbles.

The struggling priest was thrown to the ground and pressed down with knees. A six-inch nail was held against the back of his skull. And banged in with several blows of a battleaxe, right up to the head. The priest only cried out once, then just flapped and kicked his legs.

Blows rained down on the councillors crowded into the town hall portal. They were beaten with flails, balls and chains and battleaxes, hacked with swords and stabbed with bear spears. A short time later, twelve bodies were twitching in a pool of blood.