Here Once Stood Prague

According to a widely known tale, knights sleep within the hill of Blaník; when things are at their worst for our homeland, they will ride out of the hill led by Saint Wenceslas, or by Zdeněk of Zásmuky, against the enemy and drive them off. Then the land will be at ease — until the Bohemians grow proud. As a punishment God will send a flood in which the water will rise halfway up Petřín and to the statue of the Virgin on its column in the Old Town Square. In that flood the whole Bohemian nation will perish save a few people who will fit on a single wagon under its canvas. A carter will drive them, and when they come to the desolate place where the Old Town now is, he will crack his whip and say: 'Here once stood Prague.' But after that the Bohemians will be forgiven for ever, and the descendants of those few persons will grow again into a great nation which will be happy until the end of the world.