The Revolt Defeated 227took place on a black-draped scaffold in front of the Prague city hall,
watched by Liechtenstein, the other judges and city officials. Strict secu-
rity was maintained, the city gates were kept shut, and troops guarded
the square while squads of cavalry patrolled the neighbouring streets.
Eight drummers were stationed by the scaffold in order to drown out
any attempted hostile speeches by the victims, although at least two,
including Dr Jessenius, nevertheless tried. One man was reprieved at
the last minute, as he was already kneeling at the block, apparently in
response to the intercession of a canon from the cathedral, although
this had clearly been pre-arranged for effect.^62 Even in death there was
a grim order of precedence, so that Count Schlick was the first to die,
followed by Budowetz, before the knights and the citizens followed in
their turns. Twelve of the twenty-four who were beheaded with the
sword were elderly, the oldest aged 86, while two wealthy Prague citi-
zens were also hanged from the windows of the city hall and another
from a gallows in the market square.^63 The whole macabre process kept
the executioner at work from five until nine in the morning.
Where proceedings are delayed the punishments are often less severe,
and this was the case in Moravia, where the corresponding trial even-
tually opened in Brünn at the end of June 1622, with Dietrichstein
as president and nine other judges, the majority of whom had already
served at the trial in Prague. Sentences of death and loss of all property
were pronounced on 2 September, but only on those who were already
dead or had escaped. Announcement of sentences on those actually in
custody was delayed while Ferdinand hesitated over whether to con-
firm death sentences, eventually deciding against. Hence the outcome,
announced on 3 November, was mainly lengthy terms of imprisonment
and loss of property.^64
Among the most fortunate in the longer term, along with Anhalt, was
another of Ferdinand’s most determined former opponents, the leading
director and Friedrich’s one-time chancellor in Bohemia, Wenzel Ruppa.
He managed to escape from Prague without being arrested, but despair-
ing of his situation in exile he wrote to Zden ̆ek Lobkowitz in 1627,
begging for forgiveness and seeking to excuse his previous behaviour
‘with all kinds of lies’. Remarkably, he was successful, Ferdinand per-
haps for once agreeing on grounds of political expediency, and Ruppa
was able to return to Bohemia.^65
Spectacularly gruesome although the executions were, the wave of
confiscations and the religious repression which followed were ulti-
mately more significant. The resulting emigrations produced a large
number of embittered and impoverished exiles eager to fight for