(1) _“__In towers of Marienbourg the bells are ringing.__”_
Marienbourg, in Polish Malborg, a fortified town, formerly the capital of
the Teutonic Order, under Kazimir Jagellon (1444-1492) united to the
Polish Republic; later on, given as a pledge to the Margraves of
Brandenburgh. It came at last into the possession of the Kings of Prussia.
In the vaults of the castle were the graves of the Grand-Masters, some of
which are still preserved.
(2) _“__But foreign houses of his fame were full.__”_
Houses—so were called the convents, or rather castles, scattered through
various parts of Europe.
(3) _“__The strife of keen-edged swords__”__ = combattre à outrance._
(4) _The Archkomtur._
The Grosskomthur was the chief officer after the Grand-Master.
(5) _“__Some unknown pious woman from afar.__”_
The chronicles of that time speak of a country girl, who, having come to
Marienbourg, asked to be walled up in a solitary cell, and there ended her
life. Her grave was famous for miracles.
(6) _“__Our master he.__”_
In time of election, if opinions were divided or uncertain, similar
occurrences were often taken as omens, and influenced the decisions of the
chapter. Thus Winrych Kniprode gained all the voices, because some of the
brothers heard, as though from the tombs of the Grand-Masters, a
three-fold calling: “Vinrice, ordo laborat.”
(7) _“__A fire eternal burns in Swentorog’s halls.__”_
The castle of Wilna, where formerly was maintained the Znicz; that is, an
ever-burning fire.
(8) _“__The place was Witold’s.__”_
[Witold, the son of Kiejstut, after rising over the heads of the other
Lithuanian princes to the sovereignty of the whole country, was ultimately
dispossessed by his cousin Jagellon, founder of the Jagellon dynasty,
which reigned over Poland and Lithuania from 1386 to 1572.]
(9) _Song of the Wajdelote._
The Wajdelotes, Sigonoci, Lingustoni were priests whose office was to
relate or sing to the people the acts of their forefathers at all
festivals. That the old Lithuanians and Prussians loved and cultivated
poetry is proved by the enormous number of ancient songs, still remaining
among the common people, and by the testimony of chroniclers. We read that
during a grand festival on the occasion of the election of the
Grand-Master Winrych von Kniprode, a German Minnesinger, being honoured
with applause and a gold cup, a Prussian named Rizelus, was so encouraged
by this good reception of a poet, that he entreated for permission to sing
in his native Lithuanian tongue, and celebrated the deeds of the first
king of the Litwini, Wajdewut. The Grand-Master and the knights, not
understanding and disliking the Lithuanian speech, ridiculed the poet, and
gave him a present of a plate of empty nutshells. In Prussia the Crusaders
forbade officials and all who approached the court to use the Lithuanian
tongue, under penalty of death; they banished from the country, together
with the Jews and gipsies, the Wajdelotes, or Lithuanian bards, who alone
knew and could relate the national annals. Again in Lithuania, after the
introduction of the Christian faith and the Polish language, the ancient
priests and the native speech fell into disrepute, and were forgotten;
thence the common people, changed to serfs, and attached to the soil,
having abandoned the sword, also forgot those chivalric songs. Still
something has remained of their ancient annals and heroic verse, long
joined with superstition, communicated in secret to the people. Simon
Grunau, in the sixteenth century, came by accident on the Prussians at a
solemnity, and with difficulty saved his life, on promising the peasants,
that he never would reveal to any one what he should see or hear; then,
after performing sacrifice, an old Wajdelote began to sing the deeds of
the ancient Lithuanian heroes, mingling therewith prayers and moral
instructions. Grunau, who well understood Lithuanian, confesses that he
never expected to hear anything similar from the lips of a Lithuanian,
such was the beauty of the theme and the phraseology.
(10) _“__Stands visibly the pestilential maid.__”_
The common people in Lithuania figure pestilential air under the form of a
maiden, whose appearance, here described according to the popular song,
precedes a terrible sickness. I quote, in substance at least, a ballad I
once heard in Lithuania: —“In a village appeared the maiden of the
pestilence; and, after her custom, thrusting her hand through door or
window, and waving a red cloth, scattered death through the houses. The
inhabitants shut themselves up in a state of siege, but hunger and other
necessities soon obliged them to neglect such means of safety; all
therefore awaited death. A certain gentleman, although well provided with
victuals, and able to maintain a long while this strange siege, yet
resolved to sacrifice himself for the good of his neighbours, took a sabre
of the time of the Sigismonds, on which was the name of Jesus and the name
of Mary, and thus armed, opened the window of the house. The gentleman,
with one stroke, cut off the spectre’s hand, and got possession of the
handkerchief. It is true he died, and all his family died; but from that
time the disease was never known in the village.” This handkerchief was
said to be preserved in the church, I do not recollect of what village. In
the East, before the appearance of the plague, a phantom with bats’ wings
is said to appear, and to point with its fingers at those condemned to
die. It appears as though popular imagination wished to present, by such
images, that mysterious foreboding and strange anxiety which usually
precedes great misfortune or destruction, and which often is shared, not
by individuals only, but by whole nations. Thus in Greece were forebodings
of the long duration and terrible results of the Peloponnesian war; in the
Roman Empire of the fall of monarchy; in America of the coming of the
Spaniards.
(11) _“__The trees of Bialowiez.__”_
[The trees here referred to are of an immense age and extra-ordinary
height, challenging comparison with the giant trees of California. Many of
them were venerated as divinities by the pagans of Lithuania, in whose
religion tree and serpent worship formed a prominent feature. Oracles were
supposed to be given from a peculiar species of oak, called Baublis, ever
green both summer and winter. In the trunk of one of these, cut down about
the year 1845, there were counted 1417 rings.]
(12) _“__Do burn the German knights in sacrifice.__”_
The Lithuanians used to burn prisoners of war, especially Germans, as
offerings to the gods. For this purpose was set aside the leader, or the
most distinguished of the knights for high descent and bravery; if several
had become prisoners, the unfortunate victim was chosen by lot. For
example, after the victory of the Lithuanians over the Crusaders, in the
year 1315, Stryjkowski says: “And Litwa and Zmudz (Samogitia) after this
victory, and after taking abundant spoil from their conquered and
thunder-stricken foes, when they had paid to their gods sacrifices and the
accustomed prayers, burnt alive a distinguished Crusader of the name of
Gerard Rudde, the chief of the prisoners, with the horse on which he made
war, and with the armour which he had worn, on a lofty pile of wood; and
with the smoke they sent his soul to heaven, and scattered his body to the
winds with the ashes.”
(13) _“__They gave me the name of Walter.__”_
Walter von Stadion, a German knight, taken prisoner by the Lithuanians,
married the daughter of Kiejstut, and with her secretly departed from
Lithuania. It frequently occurred that Prussians and Lithuanians, carried
off as children, and educated in Germany, returned to their country, and
became the bitterest foes of the Germans. Thus the Prussian Herkus Monte
was remarkable in the annals of the Order.
(14) _War._
The picture of this war is drawn from history. [The circumstances of
Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, no doubt largely furnished the painful and
realistic details in the text.]
(15) _“__The secret tribunal descends to council.__”_
In the Middle Ages, when powerful dukes and barons frequently permitted
themselves great crimes, when the power of ordinary tribunals was too weak
to humble them, secret brotherhoods were formed, whose members, unknown to
one another, bound themselves by oath to punish the guilty, not pardoning
even their own friends or relatives. As soon as the secret judges had
pronounced the decree of death, the condemned man was made aware of it, by
a voice calling under his windows, or somewhere in his presence, the
word—_Weh!_ (woe!) This word, three times repeated, was a warning that he
who heard it should prepare for death, which he must infallibly and
unexpectedly receive from an unknown hand. The secret court was called the
_fehm_ tribunal (Vehmgericht) or Westphalian. It is difficult to determine
its origin; according to some writers it was instituted by Charlemagne. At
first necessary, it gave opportunity for many abuses later on, and
governments were forced to exercise severity occasionally against the
judges themselves, before this institution was completely overthrown.
[Scott’s graphic description in “Anne of Geierstein” of the court and
procedure of the Vehmgericht will be instantly suggested.]
(16) _“__A sudden cry.__”_
_—__“__What cleaves the silent air,_
_So madly shrill, so passing wild?_
_It was a woman’s shriek, and ne’er_
_In madlier ascents rose despair;_
_And they who heard it as it passed,_
_In mercy wished it were the last.__”_—PARISINA.
[The coincidence, or borrowing of ideas, is manifest, but the image has
been amplified and beautified in the Polish poem.]
_N.B._—In all the Polish words retained in the text, _j_ is pronounced
like _y_, and _w_ like _v_.