De desolacione castri Wisenburgk.
The Long Siege of Wisenburgk
The Prussians besieged Wisenburgk for nearly three years with daily assaults, yet the brothers held out with desperate resolve.
This castle, Wisenburgk, was besieged by the Prussians for nearly three years, and they had erected three siege engines with which they attacked the castle every day. At last the brothers, seizing one woman violently, led her into the castle, and with her they defended themselves for a long time.1
Flight by Night
When provisions failed, the brothers secretly abandoned Wisenburgk in 1261 and fled toward Masovia.
Not long afterward, when provisions had completely run out, the brothers with their men-at-arms secretly withdrew from the castle in the year of the Lord 1261, making their way toward the duchy of Masovia.2
Pursuit and Final Stand
Dywanus overtook the starving brothers and killed three of them, but was himself gravely wounded and withdrew, allowing the survivors to escape in peace.
When this became known, Dywanus, then captain of the Bartians, was following them with many men-at-arms but couldn't overtake them, because their horses had already worn out and stopped. He himself took ten thousand men on swifter horses and went ahead of the others, and as they approached, he found the brothers already weakened by hunger and too exhausted for battle. He attacked them fiercely and killed three in the first encounter.3 The others, putting up resistance in their defense, seriously wounded the aforementioned Dywanus, and from that moment he withdrew from the fighting, and the brothers with their men retired in peace.
Read the original Latin
Hoc castrum Wisenburgk a Pruthenis fere tribus annis fuit obsessum, et erexerant tres machinas, cum quibus quotidie castrum impugnaverunt. Tandem fratres unam violenter rapientes duxerunt ad castrum, et cum ea se multod tempore defenderunt. Non longe postea deficientibus omnino victualibus fratres cum suis armigeris relicto Castro secrete anno domini mcclxhi recesserunt, dirigentes viam suam versus ducatum Masovie. Quo intellecto, dum Dywanus tune Barthorum capitaneus cum multis armigeris eos sequens, non posset comprehendere, quia jam equi ipsorum lassi substiterunt, ipse assumens sibi xm viros in velocioribus equis precessit alios, et dum appropinquarent, invenit fratres jam fame deficientes et pre lassitudine non valentes ad bellum, et invasit eos viriliter, et in primo congressu occidit tres. Alii ad defensionem se opponentes dictum Dywanum graviter vulnerarunt, et extunc cessavit a bello, et fratres cum suis in pace recesserunt.
Notes
- 1 ↩The form multod is unusual; the normalized reading preserves it, but the sense is clearly multo tempore ('for a long time'). The translation follows this intended sense.
- 2 ↩The numeral mcclxhi is an unusual form; the intended year is 1261 (MCCLXI). The translation follows the normalized reading's intended sense.
- 3 ↩The numeral xm is an unusual form; the intended figure is 10,000 (X̄ or M with overline convention). The translation follows the intended sense.
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