While the young people looked forward to the future, the old recalled the past.
"Ah, how King Charles in his heavenly home will rejoice," one bent old woman, supported on crutches, murmured.
"And saintly Vaclav, too," scarcely breathed another so emaciated that she looked like a moving shadow. "He'll be proud now that Bohemia is called after him the Realm of St. Vaclav. Ah, I must see once more those precious relics we have kept of him."
With difficulty she made her way to the Cathedral where St. Vaclav's helmet, sword, and coat of mail have been religiously preserved.
Jozef's godfather sent him several picture postcards reminding him of Jozef's hero, King Charles. One represented the historic stone bridge, which Charles had had built with such care that he did not live to see it finished. On this card he wrote:
"All the statues on the bridge have a dazed expression. I wonder what they think of the change."
Another card was of the old walls of Praha, working on which through the King's care saved a thousand men from starving in a time of famine.
"I walked past these fortifications early one morning," was the message, "and hundreds of birds were among the ruins, all singing the news of our glorious resurrection."
The third card showed Karluv Tyn, built by Charles for the protection of the crown jewels and the charters of Bohemia. This beautiful castle stands not far from Praha, on a rock of jasper a thousand feet above the River Mze. To it the King-Emperor sometimes retired for the meditative devotion which he found so helpful. On this card the message was the longest:
"Charles did more than build beautiful castles and splendid cathedrals. He welcomed men of learning and made higher education possible even for the poor by founding the University of Praha, the first university in all of Central Europe. He freed the land of robbers; he secured justice to the peasants by making it possible for them to appeal to the King from the decision of their own feudal lords. His name has come down to us revered and beloved, because of the many evidences of his unselfish, constant thought for the people's welfare."