De difficultate ducendi victualia ad castrum Cristburgk.
The Siege and the Secret Aid
The brothers at Kreuzburg are besieged and nearly starve until a loyal nobleman secretly brings them aid.
With the brothers at Kreuzburg surrounded on all sides by the strength of the enemy, supplies could rarely be brought to them from Elbing without great danger and effort. Because of this it happened three times that while supplies were being brought through the Sirgune River, both the brothers and their servants were stripped of their possessions and their lives — from which so great a famine arose in Kreuzburg Castle that, unless a certain nobleman from Pomesania named Samilef, the father of Tussin, who was living among the enemies, had secretly yet faithfully come to the aid of the faith and the brothers, the castle would have been emptied of its men.
The Martyrdom of Samilef
The Prussians discover Samilef's aid and brutally torture him by boiling water and fire.
When the Prussians learned of this, they seized the said Samile in fury and poured boiling water into his mouth; then they placed him naked by the fire and roasted him until he was half-dead and could scarcely breathe. And so they sent him back to the brothers, and he survived, though weakened, for a long time.
Famine Compels Departure
Famine grows so severe that the brothers persuade their loyal Pomesanians to leave, and most withdraw.
At last famine prevailed in the said castle to such a degree that the brothers, compelled by the necessity of hunger, told and persuaded their faithful Pomesanians — who had remained loyal to them — to withdraw from them to other places, with their rights and liberty preserved, so that they could sustain themselves and not die of hunger in that same place. So with only a few remaining, the others withdrew.
Grace in Intolerable Suffering
God's abundant grace sustained the brothers with such patience that they bore intolerable hardships as if already rejoicing in paradise.
Behold the wonderful and abundant grace of God, which mercifully sustained those brothers and other Christians not only in that castle but throughout the whole land of Prussia — so that they bore with such great patience and gentleness hardships that seemed almost intolerable and entirely contrary to human life and its necessities, not as if they were grieving, but as if always rejoicing, believing themselves to be already among the delights of paradise.
Read the original Latin
Vallatis fratribus de Cristburgk undique potencia hostium, raro absque magno periculo et labore necessaria ipsis duci poterant de Elbingo. Unde acci-1dit tribus vicibus, quod dum per fluvium Sirgune talia ducerentur, et fratres et famuli rebus et vita sunt privati, de quo tanta fames orta fuit in Castro Crist burgk, quod nisi Samilef 4 quidam nobilis de Pomesania, pater Tussini, existens cum adversariis, occulte tarnen diligens fidem et fratres, non subvenisset, cas trum fuisset hominibus vacuatum. Quod cum Prutheni perciperent, indignati dictum Samile ceperunt, et aquam bulientem in os ejus fuderunt, et nudum ad ignem positum assantes, quousque semivivush vix posset respirare, et sic eum fratribus transmiserunt, qui infirmus multo tempore supervixit. Tandem ite— rum prevaluit fames in dicto Castro in tantum, quod fratres necessitate famis coacti, fidelibus suis Pomesanis, qui adheserunt eis, dixerunt et suaserunt, ut recederent ab eis ad alia loca salvo jure et libertate ipsorum, ut possent sustentari, ne ibidem fame morerentur. Unde paucis remanentibus, alii recesserunt. Ecce mira dei et exuberans gracia, que fratres istos et alios cristifideles non solum in isto Castro, verum eciam in tota terra Prussie misericorditer adimplevit ut tales defeclus quasi intolerabiles et humane vite necessitatia omnino contrarios in tanta paciencia et mansuetudine tolerarent, quod non sicut tristes, sed quasi semper gaudentes credebant se paradisi deliciisb interesse.
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