While these intrigues of the enemies of Hus were being reduced into a literary form, Sigismund at last arrived at Constance. Most English readers will remember the scene, as Carlyle has given it, of his splendid appearance on his entrance into the Council, of his pompous address about the need of suppressing the schism in the Church, and of his rebuke to the man who ventured to correct his Latin--“Rex sum Romanus et super grammaticam.” The question of Hus’s imprisonment was brought before him by the Bohemian and Polish nobles; and he at first protested, with much indignation, against the violation of his safe-conduct. But the necessity of dealing with the question of the Papacy compelled him, for a time, to abandon further inquiry into the Bohemian heresies; for the representatives of the Popes arrived soon after at the Council. At first the discussion was confined to the consideration of the disorders produced by the multiplication of claimants to the Papal throne; and a demand was made for the simultaneous resignation of all the rivals, in order that the ground might be cleared for a new election. But it soon became evident that the case against John XXIII. was based on very different grounds from the opposition to his rivals; and fearing the consequences which might ensue, he fled from Constance. The Duke of Austria, willing enough to hamper a Council presided over by a member of the House of Luxemburg, lent his aid to this scheme, and John escaped to Freyburg. He was, however, seized and brought back; and he was soon after degraded from the Papacy, on account of his horrible crimes. His attempted escape gave a new opportunity to the enemies of Hus. If, they said, one prisoner of the Council could escape, why not another? Hus was too lightly guarded at the convent; and he must be put under safer charge. Therefore, on the night of March 24th, a guard of a hundred and seventy armed men carried him off to a fortress, outside the city, belonging to the Bishop of Constance; and there he was chained night and day. Again his friends indignantly protested; but Sigismund was now evidently falling under hostile influences. He had been offended already with Hus for having come to the Council without waiting for the safe-conduct; and he was persuaded that the fact that Hus possessed that safe-conduct had been in some way suppressed. Indignant at this rumour, Sigismund, on the 8th of April, by the advice of the Council, revoked all the letters of safe-conduct which he had granted. At last, on April 17th, commissioners were appointed to report on Hus’s case.