Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/752

 314 the same lands armed mainly with pikes and scythes. The princes of Mazovia, Yanush, and Ziemovit led the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd regiments. Next marched the bishops', and then the nobles' regiments to the number of twenty-two. Hence, Yendrek of Tenchyn, , Kron of Ostrovo, and Mikolai of Mihalov, and , and Kuba of Konietspole, and Yasko of Ligenza, and the Kmitas, and the Zakliks,—and besides them the houses of , and the Bobovskis, and Kozli Rogi, and others who assembled in battle under a common escutcheon and "watchword." And so the land bloomed beneath them, as fields bloom in spring. A sea of horses moved forward, and a sea of men, above them a forest of lances with colored streamers, like small flowers, and in the rear, in clouds of dust, the townspeople and the free earth-tillers' infantry. They knew that they were going to a dreadful battle, but they knew that it was "necessary," hence they advanced with willing hearts.

On the right wing moved the legions of Vitold, under banners of various colors, but with the same device, the Lithuanian knight with upraised sword. No eye could take in all the legions, for they marched through fields and forests for a width of almost five English miles.

Before midday the armies came near Logdau and, and halted at the edge of a forest. The place seemed to be suited for rest and secure from sudden attack; for on the left flank it was protected by the water of Lake Dombrovna, on the right by Lake Luben; before the armies an expanse of field was open to the width of five miles.

In the centre of that expanse, rising gently toward the west, were the fields of, and a little to the right stood the gray straw roofs, and the empty melancholy fallow lands of Tannenberg. The enemy, who could descend toward the forest from the height, might be seen easily, but it was not supposed that they could come up sooner than the day following. So the armies halted there only to rest; but since, skilled in matters of war, had preserved, even while marching, the order of battle, they took position so that they might be ready for action at any instant.

At command of the leader they sent forward immediately, on light and swift horses, scouts in the direction of Grünwald and Tannenberg, and still farther to examine the region around. But meanwhile the chapel tent was pitched on the