But C̆enek was never long of one mind; and he soon began to despair of the struggle on which he had entered. On the one hand the Catholic defenders of the Vys̆ehrad held out successfully against his attacks; and at the same time he seems to have been sincerely shocked at the outrages committed by the Taborites. In the early outbursts, though there had been much plundering and some bloodshed, there had been little deliberate cruelty. Now, however, Z̆iz̆ka began to imitate only too closely the cruelties of the Kuttenberger; for finding a number of monks in a castle which he had stormed, he burnt them alive after the victory was over. When this cruelty was followed by the destruction of many churches and monasteries, C̆enek began to shrink from the cause which he had defended, and to urge the citizens of Prague to come to terms with Sigismund. Finding, however, that he was unable to persuade them to take this course, he resolved secretly to betray the castle to Sigismund, on the understanding that the Communion in both kinds should be permitted on C̆enek’s own estates. Sigismund apparently consented to this arrangement; and C̆enek secretly admitted into the castle four thousand of the royalist soldiers, of whom many were Germans. Furious at this treachery, the citizens made so fierce an attack upon the castle that C̆enek was panic-struck and fled secretly to Sigismund. But the attack was made without organisation or arrangement and the citizens were repelled. [Illustration: THE CASTLE OF PRAGUE.] Several noblemen had followed C̆enek in his desertion of the national cause; and at last the citizens decided to send a new embassy to Sigismund, under the protection of Wenceslaus of Duba. Sigismund’s hope and indignation had alike been raised by the recent events; and he demanded that the citizens should surrender all their arms to the defenders of the Vys̆ehrad. On receiving this demand, the Town Council of Prague sent defiance to the king, and resolved to fight till the last.