Excerpt from Bohemia: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of National Independence in 1620, With a Short Summary of Later EventsFew countries have been more strangely mis understood by the average Englishman than Bohemia has been. The mischievous blunder Of some fifteenth century Frenchman, who confused the gipsies who had just arrived in France with the nation which was just then startling Europe by its resistance to the forces of the Empire, has left a deeper mark on the imagination Of most of our countrymen than the martyrdom of Hus or even the sufferings of our own Princess Elizabeth. The word Bohemian has passed into newspaper slang, and it has been so Often quoted in its Slang sense by people who ought to be more careful in their language, that it has really hindered the study Of the real country which it misrepresents. The few who care to hear anything more Of a people so strangely Slandered, have Often been yet further blinded by their readiness to accept as absolute truth the prejudices Of the German and Magyar opponents of the Bohemian national feeling. From these sources they have derived an impression.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.