Hedvika the Tailor and the Goat of Karlštejn

That house was bought in 1428 by the notorious tailor Václav Hedvika; from the arrival of Sigismund Korybut in Prague in 1422 he was a councillor and a man of power, but he did not please everyone. He is said to have led the Prague men who besieged Karlův Týn. In the castle they had no food left but a single billy goat, so they sent out to ask a truce of four and twenty hours, saying they were to celebrate a wedding. Hedvika granted it. In the castle they killed the good goat, smeared its haunch with blood, sprinkled it with deer hairs and sent it to Hedvika — in gratitude for the truce, they said. When the men of Prague saw that venison they concluded that the castle had some secret link with the countryside and could never be starved out. So they withdrew to Prague with nothing accomplished, and ever since, it is said, tailors are teased about the goat, because a goat made a fool of Hedvika the tailor. His too, perhaps, was the proposal to take the castle by the foul stench from the cesspits of Prague.