Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/530

92 swords, axes, pitchy bows which had been scorched; by the light of the camp-fires he tested their quality. There were not many horses near the fires, for they were feeding at a distance in the forest and on fields under guard of watchful herdsmen; but as the most distinguished boyars wished to have their steeds near by, there were in the camp some tens of them fed from the hands of slaves. Hlava wondered at the shape of those animals, small beyond comparison, with strong necks, and in general so strange that Western knights considered them a distinct beast of the forest, more like unicorns than genuine horses.

"Bulky war steeds are of no use here," said the experienced Matsko, thinking of his old campaigns with Vitold, "for a big horse will mire at once in soft places, but one of these little nags will go through any place, almost as a man would."

"But on the field," said Hlava, "these beasts cannot overtake the great German horses."

"They can indeed. And besides, the German will not escape his Jmud enemy, nor will he overtake him, for the Jmud horse is as swift, if not swifter, than the Tartar."

"Still to me this is wonderful; the Tartar captives whom I saw brought in by the knight Zyh were not large, and any horse might bear one of them, but these are sturdy fellows."

The men were in truth well-bodied. By the fires were evident, under skins and coats of sheepskin, broad breasts and strong shoulders. Man for man they were rather thin, but tall and bony; in general they surpassed in size the inhabitants of other parts of Lithuania, for they lived on richer and better lands, where famines, which tortured that region at one time and another, put themselves in evidence more rarely. The Grand Prince's castle was in Vilno; to Vilno went princes from the East and the West; embassies went there, foreign merchants went; so the citizens of the place and the inhabitants of the region about grew acquainted with foreigners somewhat. In Jmud the foreigner appeared only under the form of a Knight of the Cross, or a Knight of the Sword, who brought into remote forest villages conflagration, captivity, baptism in blood; hence each man there was sterner, ruder, and closer to the old time, more unbending toward every new thing, more a defender of old customs, old ways of warfare, and the ancient religion, because the religion of the Cross was