De vastacione terre Sambiensis.
The Lethowinian Raid on Sambia
The king of the Lethowini ravages Sambia with eight thousand horsemen, burning and killing, but suffers heavy losses on the return, including eighty slain by Brother Henry of Dobinal.
That same year, in autumn, the king of the Lethowini with eight thousand horsemen entered the land of Sambia and burned all the buildings and crops, killed a few Christians, and led away a small amount of booty, because the brothers had learned of their arrival a long time in advance. And when he had thus passed through the said land from one border all the way to the other, over the course of roughly fifteen days, he set out on the journey home — though not without heavy losses of his own men, because besides many others who had been killed, Brother Henry of Dobinal, together with certain men-at-arms, slew eighty Lethowini.
The Assault on the Castle of Colayne
Brother Meneko leads a fierce attack on the castle of Colayne on the feast of Saint George, where Surminus and his defenders resist manfully until nearly all are gravely wounded.
§238 (§231) The attack on the castle of Colayne. In the year of our Lord 1290, on the feast day of blessed George the martyr, Brother Meneko the master, with five hundred horsemen and two thousand foot soldiers, fiercely attacked the castle of Colayne. In this castle was Surminus the captain, and with him were a hundred and twenty warlike men, who manfully resisted the brothers. At last all the castle's defenders, except for twelve, were so gravely wounded that blood flowed from the battlements like rainwater in a flood.
Confusion at Twilight and the Failed Recall
Five hundred of the brothers' horsemen return with a terrifying clatter, causing the common people to flee to ships, and the brothers cannot recall their own cavalry.
And when it was around twilight, five hundred of the brothers' horsemen — who had been stationed between the land of Lethowia and the said castle as a guard, and who were worn out from the long wait — came riding back with a great clatter and crash, terrifying the common people; thinking them to be enemies, the people fled to the ships. The brothers, however, though they often tried to do so, could not call them back in any way.
The Siege Lifted and Surminus's Oath
The brothers abandon the siege, and Surminus soon after deserts the castle, swearing by his gods never again to await a Teutonic attack in any fortress.
Finally they ceased from the assault and the siege. Surminus, however, the captain, not long afterwards left the aforementioned castle deserted, swearing by the power of the gods that he would never again expect an attack by the brothers in any castle henceforth.
Read the original Latin
Eodem anno in autumno rex Lethowinorum cum octo milibus equitum intravit terram Sambiensem, et omnia edificia et segetes cremavit, paucos Cri stianos occidit, et modicam predam deduxit, quia fratres adventum suum longo tempore presciverunt. Et cum sic pertransivisset dictam terram a fine usque ad finem fere per xim dies, iter arripuit redeundi, non tarnen sine suorum gravi interitu, quia preter alios multos occisos frater Henricus de Dobinal cum quibusdam armigeris lxxx Lethowinos interfecit. 238 <231) De impugnacione castri Colayne. Anno domini mcclxxxx in die beati GeorgiP martiris frater Meneko magister cum quingentis equitibus et duobus milibus peditum castrum Colayne acriter impugnavit. In hoc Castro fuit Surminus capitaneus, et erant cum eo cxx viri bellicosi, qui viriliter fratribus restiterunt. Tandem omnes castrenses preter xn fuerunt letaliter vulnerati, sic quod sanguis de meniis fluxit, sicut aqua pluvie inundantis. Et cum esset circa crepusculum, quingenti equites fratrum, qui inter terram Lethowie et dictum castrum erant ad custodiam deputati, fatigati ex longa exspectacione, reversi cum magno strepitu et fragore, terruerunt communem populum, quodd estimans, eos esse inimicos, fugit ad naves. Fratres autem, licet ad hoc sepius niterentur, non poterant ipsos aliqualiter revocare.
Ende a dieta impugnacione cessaverunt. Surminus autem capitaneus non longe postea dictum castrum desolatum reliquit, jurans per deorum potenciam, quod nunquain impugnacionem fratrum in aliquo Castro de cetero cxspectaret.
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