Sigismund, whose army had been reinforced by numerous 'Crusaders,' now decided to march on Prague. Almost all countries of Europe contributed to this vast army. According to a contemporary writer there were numbered among the Crusaders 'Hungarians, Croatians, Dalmatians, Bulgarians, Sicilians, Wallachians, Cumanians, Jazyges, Ruthenians, Racians, Slovacks, Carniolians, Styrians, Austrians, Bavarians, Francs, Swabians, Switzers, Frenchmen, Arragonians or Spaniards, Englishmen, men of Brabant, Dutchmen, Westphalians, men of Saxony, Thuringia, the Voigtland, Meissen, Lusatia, and the march of Brandenburg, Silesians, Poles, Moravians and "renégate" Bohemians.' A letter written by the Praguers merely states that innumerable men from more than thirty kingdoms and provinces arrived before their city, while Monstrelet, a contemporary, writes that 'Il arriva tant de gens qu à peine se pouvaient ils nombrer.' Most of the princes who ruled these countless countries had accompanied their troops. We read that all the German Electors, except the Elector of Saxony, Albert Duke of Austria, forty-three men of princely rank, Brunorius della Scala of Verona, the Patriarch of Aquileja, many counts of the empire, knights and nobles, were with the crusading army. Sigismund and his forces first entered the Vysehrad fortress, and then, crossing the river, provisioned the Hradcany Castle, the siege of which the Hussites were obliged to abandon. The vast army--according to the chroniclers it consisted of 100,000 or 150,000 men, but the latter figure is probably nearer to truth--now encircled Prague in every direction. The German soldiers, who were encamped on the left bank of the Vltava, opposite the Staré Mesto, insulted their enemies by incessant cries of 'Ha, ha! Hus! Hus! Ketzer![14] Ketzer!' The Praguers and their scanty allies meanwhile fearlessly and confidently prepared to encounter the world in arms against them. With them, as afterwards [Illustration: THE HRADCANY] with the Puritans, absolute confidence in Scripture rendered despondency impossible; for, to borrow the words of Mr. John Morley, 'No criticism had then impaired the position of the Bible as the direct Word of God, a single book one and whole, one page as inspired as another.' A thorough knowledge of the Old Testament is evident in all the contemporary records of those stirring times. No man or woman of Prague doubted that the Lord, who had once struck down the forces of Sennacherib, would now strike down those of Sigismund.