Prince Janusz and the duchess had ridden off with part of the court to the spring fishing at Czersk, for they loved that spectacle beyond measure and considered it the finest entertainment. Still, Czech learned many important things from Mikołaj z Długolasu, concerning both private matters and the war. He found out first that Sir Macko had evidently abandoned his plan to ride straight to Samogitia through the "Prussian Partition." As for the war, old Mikołaj confirmed all the news Czech had heard in Szczytno. All Samogitia had risen against the Germans as one man, and Prince Witold not only no longer helped the Order against the unfortunate Zmujdzini, but, without yet declaring war and lulling them with negotiations, he nevertheless supplied Samogitia with money, men, horses, and grain.
Meanwhile, both he and the Krzyżacy sent envoys to the Pope, to the Emperor, and to other Christian lords, accusing each other of faithlessness, treachery, and betrayal. On behalf of the Grand Prince, the clever Mikołaj ze Rżeniewa went with those letters; he knew how to untangle the threads woven by Teutonic cunning, demonstrably showing the immense wrongs done to the Lithuanian and Samogitian lands.
Meanwhile, when the bonds between Lithuania and Poland strengthened further at the Vilnius Sejm, the hearts of the Krzyżacy grew fearful, for it was easy to foresee that Jagiello, as the future lord of all lands under Prince Witold's authority, would side with him in case of war. Count Jan Sayn, the Komtur of Grudziadz, and Count Schwartzburg, the Komtur of Gdansk, set out on the Grand Master's orders to ask the King what they might expect from him. The King told them nothing, even though they brought him gifts: swift falcons and precious vessels. So they threatened war, but not sincerely, for they well knew that the Grand Master and the Chapter feared in their souls Jagiello's terrible power and wished to postpone the day of wrath and defeat.
And all negotiations tore apart like spider's thread, especially those with Witold. That evening, after Hlawa's arrival, fresh news came to the castle in Warsaw. Bronisz z Ciasnoci, a courtier of Prince Janusz whom he had earlier sent to Lithuania for news, arrived with two prominent Lithuanian princes bearing letters from Witold and the Zmujdzini. The news was menacing. The Order was preparing for war. They were reinforcing castles, grinding powder, chiseling stone cannonballs, drawing knechts and knights toward the border, and lighter units of cavalry and infantry were already raiding the borders of Lithuania and Samogitia from the direction of Ragneta, Gotteswerder, and other riverside castles. War cries already rang through the forest thickets, in the fields, and in the villages, and in the evenings, over the dark sea of forests, the glow of fires shone. Witold had finally taken Samogitia under his open protection, sent his stewards, and appointed the famously valiant Skirwoillo as commander of the armed people. He invaded Prussia, burning, destroying, laying waste. The Prince himself moved troops toward Samogitia, garrisoned some castles, and demolished others, such as Kaunas, so they would not become strongholds for the Krzyżacy, and it was no secret to anyone that when winter came and frost bound the swamps and bogs, or even earlier if the summer was dry, a great war would begin that would engulf all the Lithuanian, Samogitian, and Prussian lands, but if the King rushed to Witold's aid, then a day must come when the German wave would either flood half the world or, repulsed, would recede for long ages into its former channel.
But that was not to happen immediately. Meanwhile, the lament of the Zmujdzini, their desperate complaints of wrongs and cries for justice, echoed across the world. That letter of the unhappy nation was read in Krakow and Prague, at the papal court, and in other western kingdoms. Those boyars who came with Bronisz z Ciasnoci brought that open letter to Prince Janusz. So more than one Masovian involuntarily fingered his saber at his side and pondered in his soul whether to enlist of his own accord under Witold's banner. It was known that the Grand Prince was glad of the hardened Lechitic nobility, as fierce in battle as the Lithuanian and Samogitian boyars, but more practiced and better armed. Some were also driven by hatred of the old enemies of the Lechitic people, and others by pity: "Listen, listen!" the Zmujdzini cried to the kings, princes, and all nations. "We were free, a people of noble blood, and the Order wants to turn us into slaves! They seek not our souls, but our land and wealth. Our misery is such that we can only beg or rob! How can they wash us with the water of baptism when their own hands are unclean? We want baptism, but not with blood and sword, and we want faith, but only such as the worthy monarchs Jagiello and Witold teach. Listen and save us, for we perish! The Order does not want to baptize us, so that they may oppress us more easily; they send us not priests but executioners. They have already taken our beehives, our herds, all the fruits of the earth; they forbid us to catch fish or hunt game in the forests.
"We beg you! Listen, for behold, they have bent our once-free necks to night labor at castles, carried away our children as hostages, and dishonor wives and daughters before the eyes of husbands and fathers. We would have more reason to groan than to speak! They have burned our families with fire, carried our lords away to Prussia, killed great men: Korkuc, Wassygin, Swolk, and Sagajlo, and they lap our blood like wolves... Oh, listen! We are people, not animals, and so we cry to the Holy Father to have us baptized by Polish bishops, for we desire baptism with all our souls, but baptism with the water of grace, not with the living blood of destruction."
Thus and similarly the Zmujdzini complained, and when their complaints were heard at the Masovian court, several knights and courtiers immediately decided to go to their aid, understanding that they need not even ask Prince Janusz's permission, if only because the duchess was Witold's own sister. Hearts seethed with universal anger when they learned from Bronisz and the boyars that many noble Zmujdzini youths, held as hostages in Prussia, unable to bear the dishonor and cruelties the Krzyżacy inflicted on them, had taken their own lives.
Hlawa rejoiced at this eagerness of the Masovian knights, for he thought that the more men from Poland marched to Prince Witold, the greater the war would blaze and the more surely something could be accomplished against the Krzyżacy. He was also glad that he would see Zbyszko, to whom he had grown attached, and the old knight Macko, whom he thought worthy to see in action, and with them new wild lands, unknown cities, knights and armies never seen before, and finally the Prince himself, whose fame then resounded widely throughout the world.
And with that thought, he resolved to travel by "great and diligent roads," stopping nowhere longer than necessary to rest the horses. Those boyars who had come with Bronisz z Ciasnoci, and other Lithuanians at the duchess's court, familiar with all the roads and passages, were to lead him and the volunteer Masovian knights from settlement to settlement, from stronghold to stronghold, and through the vast, trackless wildernesses that covered most of Masovia, Lithuania, and Samogitia.