“Jesus,” sighed Jan Královec. “Is that town in the middle of the very sea?”

“That’s the Odra and a branch of it.” Urban Horn pointed to the broad expanse of water. “And that’s the Oława, which surrounds the town from the south.”

“And well protects access to it,” said Jíra of Řečice, “as though it had no need of walls.”

“But it has them,” said Blažek of Kralupy, “and sturdy ones at that. It’s not short of towers, either… Never mind church spires! It’s almost like Prague!”

“The first,” said Horn, flaunting his knowledge and pointing, “is Saint Nicholas’s in Szczepin, and over there, that’s Nicholas’s Gate. That large church with the tall tower is Saint Elisabeth’s, and the other one, just as imposing, is Saint Mary Magdalene’s. That tower is the town hall. And that church there is—”

“Saint Dorothy’s,” Prokop the Shaven interjected dispassionately, demonstrating no worse a knowledge of Wrocław. “And there, on Piasek Island, is the Church of Our Lady. Beyond Piasek is Ostrów Tumski, beyond it the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross, beside is the cathedral, which is still being built. Over yonder… Ołbin, the great Premonstratensian monastery. And over there, Saint Catherine’s and the Dominican Saint Adalbert’s. Satisfied? Know everything now? Splendid, because you won’t see Wrocław’s churches close at hand. Not this time, at least.”

“Naturally,” said Jan Tovačovský of Cimburk, nodding. “It would be madness to attack the city.”

“O thee of little faith!” Little Prokop grimaced and spat. “Had Joshua thought like you, Jericho would be standing to this day! It is the might of God that brings down walls—”

“Leave God be,” Dobko Puchała interrupted calmly. “Jericho or not, only a quite deranged fellow would storm Wrocław now.”

The Hussite leaders muttered, in the main agreeing with the opinions of the Moravian and the Pole. The gleam in the eyes of Královec, Jan Bleh and Otík of Loza attested to the fact that they would willingly have tried if they could have.

“But we are here.” Prokop, as usual, didn’t miss the gleams. “From quite far away to this den of the Antichrist. We have journeyed hard and long, and it would be a sin not to give the Antichrist a lesson in religion.”

Before them, at the foot of the hill, the River Ślęza, wide and flooding the meadows, with storks wading in it, flowed along its shallow course. Birch woodland was becoming clothed in a delicate, fresh green. Bird cherry trees were beginning to bloom. Marsh marigolds and buttercups were flowering in the wetlands and dandelions in the meadows. Reynevan looked away from the signs of spring. The main forces of the Tábor and Orphans were crossing the Bystrzyca via the captured bridge in Leśnica, beside the smoking embers of the customs house.