"Had Matthew succeeded in this rebellion," Jozef's godfather concluded in telling the story, "he might have laid the foundations of a successful Slovak state, for the Slovaks at that time still had in mind the part they had played in the big Moravian Kingdom of Svatopluk." CHAPTER IX JOZEF GOES TO SCHOOL A WONDERFUL opportunity now came for Jozef. He was only twelve and had just completed the course in the primary school. "Jozef is bright. He is above the average in his studies," the teacher told his parents. "He ought to continue school work." "I'd let him go on if we had schools of our own, but I won't have him go to a Magyar school to forget his language and learn to despise his own kin like Shlachta's boy," his father declared with emphasis. "Better have him ignorant than false to his birthright," his mother agreed. The teacher nodded. He understood. "If you could only send him to Bohemia," he suggested. "If," repeated the father grimly. "What is this about Bohemia?" asked Jozef's godfather, who had just come up. He was a tall, thin, muscular man, whose hair hung down his back in two tiny braids. He was known for his liberal and somewhat "heretical" opinions. "I am going there after the holidays. Do you want to send some message?" The teacher explained to him how things stood. "If we don't educate our children," he pleaded, "the Magyars will take greater and greater advantage of our ignorance." Jozef's godfather stood a few moments in thought. Then he nodded good-by and left. The teacher was not put out. He was glad that he was going to think it over. The next morning the godfather was over at Jozef's house bright and early. "I've decided," he said, "that the teacher is right. In Bohemia, Jozef will learn more about his own country than we can ever teach him here and he'll learn to fight. I'll take him with me and somehow we'll find means to pay for his schooling there." So, one day, Jozef found himself whirled away on a train over the fertile farm lands of Moravia, in parts of which there are many Slovak villages, through Nivnitz, where the great Moravian educator, John Amos Comenius was born, through towns and hamlets until they came to Brno, Moravia's capital. They changed trains here, and Jozef had time to see the Spielberg, crowned by a citadel long used as a Government prison, with its horrible torture cells, which throw some light on the conception of humanity of the Hapsburg Monarchy. And then away again but not to Praha, Bohemia's capital. Instead, Jozef's godfather was bound for Tabor, one of the most interesting towns of Bohemia, having been founded by one of the great religious reform parties at the outbreak of the Hussite Wars. This was the town of Jan Zizka, the redoubtable military hero of the times.