CHAPTER LI.
To the battlefield on which Skirvoillo had cut down the Germans the road was easy, because it was known; they reached it, therefore, quickly, but rode on in haste because of the unendurable odor given out from unburied corpses. The passing knights dispersed wolves, immense flocks of crows, daws, and ravens. Soon after, they began to search for tracks along the way. Though a whole detachment had passed that road earlier, the experienced Matsko found on the trodden earth gigantic hoof-prints going in a direction opposite to that by which the expedition had come, and explained as follows to the young men less acquainted with military questions,—
"It is lucky that there has been no rain since the battle. Just look! Arnold's horse, as carrying a man bulky beyond others, must have been immense also, and it is easy to note that galloping in escape, he struck the earth more forcibly with his feet than if he had been going slowly, and so he dug deeper holes in it. Look, whoever of you has eyes, how the horseshoes have left their marks in damp places! With God's help we will track on the dog brothers worthily, unless they have found refuge behind walls by this time."
"Sanderus said," answered Zbyshko, "that there are no castles in the neighborhood; and this is true, for the country has been occupied freshly by the Knights of the Order, and they have not been able to build themselves up in it. Where are they to hide? The common men, who live here, are in the camp with Skirvoillo, for they are the same people as the Jmud men. The villages, as Sanderus has told us, have been burnt by the Germans, the women and children are hidden in secret parts of the forest. We shall overtake unless we spare our horses."
"We need to spare them, for even if we should overtake those men our salvation is in the horses afterward," said Matsko.
"Knight Arnold," put in Sanderus, "was struck during the battle on his shoulders with a club. He paid no attention at first to this; he fought on; but afterward it must
