# The Knights of the Cross/Volume 2/Chapter 44

* CHAPTER XLIV
* Prince Yanush of Mazovia and the princess had gone with a part of their court to the fishing of the spring season in Chersk, for they loved the sight greatly and considered it their foremost pleasure. Hlava learned from Mikolai of Dlugolyas many important things touching private affairs as well as questions of war. He learned, first of all, that the knight Matsko had evidently given up his intention of going to Jmud directly across the "Prussian hindrance," for he had been in Warsaw some days before, where he had found Prince Yanush and the princess. Concerning war, old Mikolai confirmed the reports which Hlava had heard in Schytno. All Jmud had risen as one man against the Germans, and Prince Vitold not only did not assist the Knights of the Cross, but, without declaring war yet, and while deluding them with discussions, he strengthened Jmud with money, with men, with horses and wheat. Meanwhile both he and the Order were sending envoys to the Pope, to the Emperor, to all Christian rulers. They accused each other of faith-breaking, deceit, and treachery. From Prince Vitold went, with letters declaring these things, the wise Mikolai of Reniev, who understood how to unravel the threads twisted into each other by German cunning. He did this by showing accurately the measureless wrongs inflicted on the lands of Jmud and Lithuania.
* At the same time, since at the Diet of Vilno the bonds between Lithuania and Poland had been strengthened, the hearts of the Knights of the Cross were growing timid, because it was easy to foresee that Yagello, as the overlord of all lands which were under the ruling of Vitold, would stand during war on his side. Count Yan Sayn, the comtur of Grudziansk, and Count Schwartzberg, of Dantzig, went at command of the Grand Master to Yagello to inquire what they were to expect of him. The king gave no answer, though they brought gifts to him,—precious vessels and hunting-hawks. Therefore they threatened war, but insincerely, since they knew well that the Grand Master and the Chapter were in their souls afraid of the terrible ​power of Yagello, and wished to defer the day of defeat and vengeance.
* Hence all discussions broke like a spiderweb, especially those that were carried on with Vitold. In the evening, after Hlava's arrival at Warsaw, came fresh news to the castle: Bronish of Tsiasnota came, an attendant of Prince Yanush, whom he had sent somewhat earlier to Lithuania for tidings, and with him came two considerable princes of Lithuania with letters from Vitold, and from the Jmud men. The tidings were threatening. The Knights were preparing for war. They had strengthened castles, they had made powder, they had made stone cannon-balls, they had brought to the boundary camp-followers and knighthood, while divisions of lighter cavalry and infantry had already crossed the boundaries of Jmud and Lithuania from the direction of Ragneta, Gotteswerder, and other boundary castles. In forest depths, in fields, in villages, shouts of war were heard, and every evening, above the dark sea of forests, flames were blazing already. Vitold had taken Jmud under his evident protection at last; he had sent his managers, and had appointed as leader of the armed people Skirvoillo, famed for bravery. Skirvoillo attacked Prussia, he burnt, destroyed, ravaged. Prince Vitold himself hurried off troops toward Jmud; some castles he provisioned, others, as, for instance, Kovno, he destroyed, lest it might become a stronghold for the Order; and it was no longer a secret to any man that when winter came and frost bound the swamps and wet places, or even earlier should the summer prove a dry one, a mighty war would begin, which would cover Jmud, Lithuania, and Prussian regions; for if the king aided Vitold, the day must come in which the German wave would either cover half a world, or be hurled back for long centuries into the bed occupied by it earlier.
* But this was not to happen straightway. Meanwhile the groan of the Jmud people was heard throughout the world,—their despairing complaints of wrong and their calls for justice. That letter of the unfortunate people had been read in Cracow, in Prague, at the court of the Pope, and in other capitals of western Europe. To Prince Yanush open letters had been brought by those people who had come with Bronish. Hence not a few in Mazovia put hands to their sword-hilts involuntarily, considering in spirit whether they would not better place themselves under Vitold's banner of their own wish. They knew that Vitold, ​the Grand Prince, liked the experienced Polish nobility, who were as stubborn in battle as the Lithuanians and Jmud men, and besides, better armed and better disciplined. Some were urged on by hatred for the ancient foes of the Polish race, and still others by compassion. "Listen to us, listen!" cried the Jmud people to kings, princes, and all nations. "We have been free and are people of good blood, but the Order wants to turn us into captives! They are not working for our souls, but for our land and our property. Our misery is such that we must beg or become robbers! How can they wash us in the water of baptism when their own hands are foul? We desire baptism, but not in blood and with the sword; we want religion, but we want it of the kind which is taught by honorable rulers like Yagello and Vitold. Hear us and save us, for we are perishing! The Knights of the Cross withhold baptism so as to oppress the more easily. Not priests are they sending, but hangmen; they have taken bees, cattle, all the fruits of the earth from us; now we are not permitted to fish, or to kill a wild beast in the forest. We are imploring! Listen to us! for look, they have bent our once free necks to night work at their castles; they have borne away our children as hostages; they dishonor our wives and daughters before the eyes of their husbands and fathers. It would be more fitting for us to groan than to speak! Our families they have burned with fire; they have taken off to Prussia men of high standing, great persons,—the Korkutsie, Vassygin, Svolek, and Sangayla; they murder us, and are gulping our blood as if they were wolves. Oh, listen to us! We are in every case human beings, not wild beasts. Why is it that we turn to implore the Holy Father to command that we be christened by Polish bishops? Because with our whole spirit we are thirsting for Christian baptism, but baptism in the water of love, not in the warm blood of extermination."
* Thus and similarly did the Jmud people complain; hence, when their complaints were heard at the court of Mazovia straightway a number of tens of knights and nobles decided to go and assist them, understanding that there was no need to ask Prince Yanush for permission, even for this reason that his wife was Vitold's sister. Universal rage of heart boiled up when they learned from Bronish and the others that many noble youths who were hostages in Prussia, unable to endure the insults and cruelties inflicted on them by the Knights, had committed suicide.
* ​Hlava was rejoiced at the willingness of the Mazovian knighthood, for he thought that the more men went from Poland to Prince Vitold, the hotter would the war grow, and the more surely would they effect something against the Knights of the Order. He was comforted by this also, that he would see Zbyshko, to whom he had grown attached, and the old knight Matsko, of whom he had this thought, that he was worth looking at in action. And with these men he would see new wild regions, fresh cities, new knighthoods and armies, and finally Prince Vitold himself, whose glory was thundering widely through the world at that time.
* So he resolved to go with "great and hurried marches," stopping in no place longer than was needed to rest horses. Those attendants who had come with Bronish and other Lithuanians to the court of Prince Yanush, and knew the roads and every passage, were to conduct him and all Mazovian volunteers from village to village, from city to city, and through wild and vast foists, with which Mazovia, Lithuania, and Jmud were covered for the most part.