gion 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, th