Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/769

 Rh look around, but advanced, toiling forward, like a black cloud out of which from moment to moment a lightning flash crashes.

The regiment of Poznan, having for its ensign a crownless eagle, fought also for life and death, while the archbishop's regiment and the three Mazovian regiments advanced with it in rivalry. But all the others too surpassed one another in venom and in valor. In the Sieradz regiment Zbyshko of Bogdanets rushed like a raging wild boar into the thickest of the throng; at his side went old Matsko, terrible, fighting with judgment, as a wolf fights which bites to kill and not otherwise.

Matsko sought Kuno Lichtenstein with his eyes on all sides, but, unable to see him in the throng, he selected others, those who wore the richest armor, and he hewed persistently. Not far from the two knights of Bogdanets the ominous Stan of Rogov fought wildly. At the first encounter his helmet was broken; so he fought bareheaded, terrifying the Germans with his hairy and bloody face which seemed not human, but the face of some monster of the forest which they saw before them.

But hundreds and then thousands of knights, on both sides, covered the earth—till at last, under the blows of raging Poles, the battered German wall began to totter; then something happened capable of changing the fate of the whole battle in one moment.

Returning from the pursuit of the Lithuanians, heated and intoxicated with victory, the German regiments saw before them the flank of the Polish wing. Judging that all the king's armies were beaten and the battle won decisively, they were returning in great unordered crowds, with shouting and singing, when they beheld all at once in front of them a savage slaughter, and the Poles, almost victorious, surrounding the German legions.

So these Knights of the Order, lowering their heads, looked with astonishment through the openings of their visors at what was happening, and then where each one stood he thrust spurs into his horse's flanks and rushed into the whirl of battle.

And so throng followed throng, till soon thousands hurled themselves at the Polish regiments now wearied with battle. The Germans shouted with delight when they saw approaching aid, and began to strike at the Poles with new ardor.