KONRAD WALLENROD.
3
INTRODUCTION.
A hundred years had gone by since the knights of the Cross waded in the gore of the Northern Pagans. The Prussian had already bent his neck to their iron yoke; or, abandoning his home, was trying to escape with his life, whilst the German was pursuing the fugitive, with fire and sword, to the borders of Lithuania.
The Niemen separated the Lithuanian from his foes. On one side glittered the pinnacles of temples, and the winds roared through the forests — the dwellings of the gods; on the opposite bank peered on a hill a cross, the sign of the Germans, which, with its head touching the clouds, stretched its arms towards Lithua-
