De vastacione territorii Pograude et Garthe.
Two Commanders Ride into Lithuania
Brother Eberardus of Virnenburgk sets out with two thousand horsemen toward Lithuania, while Brother Conradus of Lichtenhagen has already advanced on the territory of Garthe, laying waste by fire and plunder though meeting resistance from gathered Lithuanian horsemen.
In the same year, in the winter season, Brother Eberardus of Virnenburgk, commander of Kunigsbergk, set out toward Lithuania with two thousand horsemen. But this shouldn't be passed over in silence: Brother Conradus of Lichtenhagen, commander of Brandenburgk, had preceded him with a great army, advancing toward the territory of the castle of Garthe, which he laid waste with fire and plunder, though he didn't accomplish much there, since the horsemen of the land of Lithuania had gathered at that territory.1
The Surprise Devastation of Pograuda
Eberardus, acting on the master's prior arrangement, surprises the Lithuanian territory of Pograuda and destroys much of it, while the brothers' banner stands on a mountain opposite Jedcmine where Count of Hoinbergk and other nobles are knighted.
On the third day after this, the same Brother Eberardus with his army — just as had been arranged beforehand by the master — unexpectedly entered the Lithuanian territory called Pograuda and destroyed the greater part of it through fire and plunder.2 But the banner of the brothers, with those who had joined them, stood from morning until midday on a mountain opposite the castle of Jedcmine, where the aforementioned Count of Hoinbergk and several other nobles received the dignity of knighthood.3
Ambush on the Withdrawal and the Campaign's Toll
As the brothers' army withdraws, Lithuanian pursuers are killed in ambushes, and the campaign's total toll is reckoned at a thousand infidels killed and captured beyond those destroyed by fire.
This having been done, while the brothers' army was withdrawing, ambushes having been set, more than twenty Lithuanians who had followed were killed.4 In this campaign, besides those destroyed by fire, a thousand infidels were killed and captured.5
Read the original Latin
Anno eodem tempore hyemali frater Eberardus de Virnenburgk commendator de Kunigsbergk 2 3, cum duobus milibus equitum versus Lethowiam est profectus. Sed hoc non est sub silencio pretereundum, quod frater Conradus de Lichtenhagen, commendator de Brandenburgk 4 5, cum exercitu magno precesserat ipsum, eundo versus castri Garthe territorium, quod vastavit incendio et rapina, licet autem non multum proficeret ibi, cum equites terre Lethowie ad dictum territorium convenerunt. Tercio autem die post hec idem frater Eberar dus cum suo exercitu, sicut preordinatum fuit a magistro, improvise intravit territorium Lethowie dictum Pograudam et majorem partem ejus destruxit per incendium et rapinam. Sed vexillum fratrum cum sibi adjunctis stetit a mane usque ad meridiem in monte ex opposito castri Jedcmine, ubi dictus comes de Hoinbergk" et plures alii nobiles dignitatem milicie susceperunt. Hoc facto dum fratrum exercitus recederet, positis insidiis, plures quamb xx Lethowini, qui sequuti fuerant, sunt occisi. In hoc bello preter incendium interfecti fuerunt mille infideles et capti.
Notes
- 1 ↩Licet…autem rendered as 'though' to capture the concessive force; the double connective licet…autem is compressed into a single concessive clause in English.
- 2 ↩The name 'Eberardus' appears truncated in the manuscript as 'Eberar dus'; the normalized reading restores the full form.
- 3 ↩Vexillum rendered as 'banner' in the military sense of a unit's standard and the company bearing it, not merely a flag.
- 4 ↩The form 'quamb' is uncertain; it is read here as a corruption of 'quam' ('than'), yielding 'more than twenty.'
- 5 ↩Infideles rendered as 'infidels' in the medieval chronicler's sense of non-Christians; the term reflects the source's perspective.
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