lery and all the throats
and hearts of the place raging deliriously upon it. So that the poor
Bitters, who had no chance in resisting, were in few days obliged to
surrender; [8th February, 1454, says Voigt (viii. 361); 16th, says
Kohler _ (Munzbelustigungen,_ xxii. 110).] had to come out in
bare jerkin; and Thorn ignominiously dismissed them into space
forevermore,--with actual 'kicks,' I have read in some Books, though
others veil that sad feature. Thorn threw out its old parent in this
manner; swore fealty to the King of Poland; and invited other Towns and
Knightages to follow the example. To which all were willing, wherever
able.

"War hereupon, which blazed up over Preussen at large,--Prussian
Covenant and King of Poland VERSUS Teutsch Ritterdom,--and lasted into
the thirteenth year, before it could go out again; out by lack of fuel
mainly. One of the fellest wars on record, especially for burning and
ruining; above '300,000 fighting-men' are calculated to have perished in
it; and of towns, villages, farmsteads, a cipher which makes the fancy,
as it were, black and ashy altogether. Ritterdom showed no lack of
fighting energy; but that could not save it, in the pass things were got
to. Enormous lack of wisdom, of reality and human veracity, there had
long been; and the hour was now come. Finance went out, to the last
coin. Large mercenary armies all along; and in the end not the color
of money to pay them with; mercenaries became desperate; 'besieged the
Hochmeister and his Ritters in Marienburg;'--finally sold the Country
they held; formally made it over to the King of Poland, to get their pay
out of it. Hochmeister had to see such things, and say little. Peace, or
extinction for want of fuel, came in the year 1466. Poland got to itself
the whole of that fine German Country, henceforth called 'WEST Preussen'
to distinguish it, which goes from the left bank of the Weichsel to the
borders of Brandenburg and Neumark;--would have got Neumark too, had not
Kurfurst Friedrich been there to save it. The Teutsch Order had to go
across the Weichsel, ignominiously driven; to content itself with 'EAST
Preussen,' the Konigsberg-Memel country, and even to do homage to Poland
for that. Which latter was the bitterest clause of all: but it could
not be helped, more than the others. In this manner did its revolted
children fling out Teutsch Ritterdom ignominiously to the dogs, to the
Polacks, first of all,--Thorn, the eldest child, l