soul yearned for new worlds to conquer,
turned toward the east where the wild Esthland tribes were guilty of
even worse outrages than the Wends before Absalon tamed them. The
dreadful cruelties practised by these pagans upon christian captives
cried aloud to all civilized Europe, and Valdemar took the cross
"for the honor of the Virgin Mary and the absolution of his sins,"
and gathered a mighty fleet, the greatest ever assembled in Danish
waters. With more than a thousand ships he sailed across the Baltic.
The Pope sped them with his apostolic blessing, and took king and
people into his especial care, forbidding any one to attack the
country while they were away converting the heathen. Archbishop
Anders led the crusade with the king. As the fleet approached the
shore they saw it covered with an innumerable host of the enemy. So
great was their multitude that the crusaders quailed before the
peril of landing; but the archbishop put heart into them, and led
the fleet in fervent prayer to the God of battle. Then they landed
without hindrance.

There was an old stronghold there called Lyndanissa that had fallen
into decay. The crusaders busied themselves for two days with
building another and better fort. On the third day, being St. Vitus'
Day, they rested, fearing no harm. The Esthlanders had not troubled
them. Some of their chiefs had even come in with an offer of
surrender. They were willing to be converted, they said, and the
priests were baptizing them after vespers, while the camp was making
ready for the night, when suddenly the air was filled with the yells
of countless savages. On every side they broke from the woods, where
they had been gathering unsuspected, and overwhelmed the camp. The
guards were hewn down, the outposts taken, and the King's men were
falling back in confusion, their standard lost, when Prince Vitislav
of Ruegen who had been camping with his men in a hollow between the
sand-hills, out of the line of attack, threw himself between them
and the Esthlanders, and gave the Danes time to form their lines.

In the twilight of the June evening the battle raged with great
fury. With the King at their head, who had led them to victory on so
many hard-fought fields, the Danes drove back their savage foes time
after time, literally hewing their way through their ranks with
sword and battle-axe. But they were hopelessly outnumbered. Their
hearts misgave them as they saw ten heathen spring out of the ground