CHAPTER VIII.
A COLD, heavy fog was slowly dragging itself over the boundary mountains. Now and then cold rain drizzled down, and like sharp needles pierced through the thin garments of the peasants, who were followed by an army of soldiers urging them onward.
It was in the year 1781; the Emperor Joseph II. had issued his famous “Toleration Patent,” in which he proclaimed liberty to all the religious denominations of the empire. The Bohemian Brethren, who had until then secretly conducted their services in great danger, now publicly professed their faith and desired to be registered as a religious body. The Brethren were about one hundred thousand in number, settled mostly along the banks of the Elbe. But soon they learned to
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