levelled against Augusta and Bílek was. Dr. Jireček, however, states that the Brethren were said to have prayed for the success of the German Protestants, and also to have granted them financial aid. Bílek, to whom Augusta had entrusted the financial affairs of the community, was accused of having sent a large sum of money to the Elector of Saxony and Wittenberg. The efforts of the Austrian officials to induce the Brethren to confess these and other offences were, however, ineffectual, though very severe torture was employed. Bílek has left us in his book a very graphic account of their interrogatory, and of the manner in which torture was applied to them during the intervals of the questioning. Finally, Bílek writes, ‘the officials ordered that he (Augusta) should again be placed on the rack because of the questions mentioned before; but it did not last long, as he had become quite silent and swooned away. I think, had they but continued a little longer, he would have died during the torture.’
As already mentioned, it was at last decided that Augusta and Bílek should be imprisoned at the castle of Křivoklat, and they were conveyed there from Prague in the night of May 25, 1548. I will translate only a brief passage from Bílek’s description of their prison-life. He writes: ‘In the year 1550, the Lord God wrought a great miracle, opening out for them in their secrecy and seclusion a path that was also secret and secluded, thus enabling their friends to visit them and to receive news from them; and this happened thus: among the guards who watched them, and had strict injunctions how to watch over them, there was a servant who knew them slightly and knew what men
