The Knights of the Cross | Page 4

dove. Czechowie (Bohemians) cut dreadfully with axes.
For the big two-handed sword the German is the best. The Swiss is glad
to strike the helmets with an iron flail, but the greatest knights are those
who come from France. These will fight on horseback and on foot, and
in the meanwhile they will speak very brave words, which however you
will not understand, because it is such a strange language. They are
pious people. They criticise us through the Germans. They say we are
defending the heathen and the Turks against the cross, and they want to
prove it by a knightly duel. And such God's judgment is going to be
held between four knights from their side, and four from our side, and
they are going to fight at the the court of Waclaw, the Roman and
Bohemian king."[4]
Here the curiosity so increased among the noblemen and merchants,
that they stretched their necks in the direction of Macko of Bogdaniec
and they asked:
"And who are the knights from our side? Speak quickly!" Macko raised
the mug to his mouth, drank and then answered:
"Ej, don't be afraid about them. There is Jan of Wloszczowa, castellan
of Dobrzyn; there's Mikolaj of Waszmuntow; there are Jasko of
Zdakow and Jarosz of Czechow: all glorious knights and sturdy fellows.
No matter which weapons they choose,--swords or axes--nothing new
to them! It will be worth while for human eyes to see it and for human
ears to hear it--because, as I said, even if you press the throat of a

Frenchman with your foot, he will still reply with knightly words.
Therefore so help me God and Holy Cross they will outtalk us, but our
knights will defeat them."
"That will be glory, if God will bless us," said one of the nobles.
"And Saint Stanislaw!" added another. Then turning toward Macko, he
asked him further:
"Well! tell us some more! You praised the Germans and other knights
because they are valiant and have conquered Litwa easily. Did they not
have harder work with you? Did they go against you readily? How did
it happen? Praise our knights."
But evidently Macko of Bogdaniec was not a braggart, because he
answered modestly:
"Those who had just returned from foreign lands, attacked us readily;
but after they tried once or twice, they attacked us with less assurance,
because our people are hardened and they reproached us for that
hardness: 'You despise,' they used to say,'death, but you help the
Saracens, and you will be damned for it.' And with us the deadly
grudge increased, because their taunt is not true! The king and the
queen have christened Litwa and everyone there tries to worship the
Lord Christ although not everyone knows how. And it is known also,
that our gracious lord, when in the cathedral of Plock they threw down
the devil, ordered them to put a candle before him--and the priests were
obliged to tell him that he ought not to do it. No wonder then about an
ordinary man! Therefore many of them say to themselves:
"'The _kniaz_[5] ordered us to be baptized, therefore I was baptized; he
ordered us to bow before the Christ, and I bowed; but why should I
grudge a little piece of cheese to the old heathen devils, or why should I
not throw them some turnips; why should I not pour the foam off of the
beer? If I do not do it, then my horses will die; or my cows will be sick,
or their milk will turn into blood--or there will be some trouble with the
harvest.' And many of them do this, and they are suspected. But they
are doing it because of their ignorance and their fear of the devils.
Those devils were better off in times of yore. They used to have their
own groves and they used to take the horses which they rode for their
tithe. But to-day, the groves are cut down and they have nothing to
eat--in the cities the bells ring, therefore the devils are hiding in the
thickest forest, and they howl there from loneliness. If a Litwin[6] goes

to the forest, then they pull him by his sheep-skin overcoat and they say:
'Give!' Some of them give, but there are also courageous boys, who will
not give and then the devils catch them. One of the boys put some
beans in an ox bladder and immediately three hundred devils entered
there. And he stuffed the bladder with a service-tree peg, brought them
to Wilno and sold them to the Franciscan priests, who gave him twenty
_skojcow_[7] he did this to destroy the enemies of Christ's name. I
have seen that bladder with my own eyes; a dreadful stench came from
it, because in that way