JOHN, of Trocznow, a famous general of the forces of the Hussites, was born in Bohemia about the year 1880. He entered very young into the army, and after distinguishing himself on several occasions, lost an eye in a battle, whence some have supposed he was called Ziska, or One-eyed. But this is a fiction, as Ziska, or more properly Ziska, was his family name. At length the reformation, begun by John Huss, spreading throughout almost all Bohemia, Ziska placed himself at the head of the Hussites, and had soon under his command a body of 40,000 men. With this army he gained several victories over those of the Romish religion, who carried on a kind of crusade against them; and he built a town in an advantageous situation, to which he gave the name of Tabor, whence the Hussites were afterwards called Taborites. Ziska lost his other eye by an arrow at the siege of the city of Raby; but this did not prevent his continuing the war, his fighting battles, and gaining several great victories, among which was that of Ausig on the Elbe, in which 9000 of the enemy were left dead on the field. The Emperor Sigismund, alarmed at his progress, caused very advantageous proposals to be made to him, which he readily accepted, and set out to meet Sigismund, but died on the road, on the 11th of October 1424.

Ziska, it is said, ordered that his body should be left a prey to the birds and wild beasts, and that a drum should be made of his skin, being persuaded that the enemy would flee as soon as they heard the sound. It is added that the Hussites executed his will; and that the news of this order made such an impression on the disturbed imaginations of the German papists, that in many battles they actually fled at the beat of the drum with the utmost precipitation, leaving their baggage and artillery behind them. This, we fear, is mere fable. The cruelty of Ziska forms the principal stain on his character. He believed, after the manner of the Hebrews of old, that he was the instrument of Divine vengeance, sent into the world to scourge men for their transgressions.