CHAPTER XLIX.
Zbyshko commanded to put him on one of the captured wagons, which was laden with new wheels and axles for that expedition which was advancing to the aid of the castle. He himself mounted another horse and moved on with Matsko in further pursuit of the fleeing Germans. That pursuit was not over-difficult, for German horses were bad for escape, above all on a road softened by spring rains considerably. Matsko especially, having under him a swift and lightly-built mare, which came to him from the dead noble of Lenkavitsa, passed after a few furlongs almost all the Jmud men, and soon overtook the nearest German. He hailed him, it is true, according to knightly custom, intending that he should either surrender as a captive, or turn back to give battle; but when the other, feigning deafness, threw away his shield to relieve his horse, and bending forward put spurs to the animal, the old knight struck him cruelly with his broad axe between the shoulders and hurled him from the saddle.
Thus did he avenge himself on the fugitives for that traitorous arrow which he had received, and they fled before him like a herd of deer, in which each bears in its heart fright unendurable, but in that heart no wish for defence or battle, no wish but that of escape from the terrible pursuer. Some ran into the forest; but one mired near a brook, and him the Jmud men choked with a halter. Whole crowds rushed into the thicket after the fugitives, and then began a wild hunt full of shouts, exclamations, and outcries. For a good while the secret places among trees resounded with yells, till the last man was taken. Then the old knight from Bogdanets, Zbyshko, and Hlava returned to the first field, on which the slain German soldiers were lying. The bodies had been stripped, and some of them mutilated cruelly by the vengeful hands of Jmud warriors.
The victory was considerable, and the men were roused by delight at it. After the recent defeat of Skirvoillo dissatisfaction had begun to seize Jmud hearts, especially as the reinforcements promised by Vitold had not come with such
