and unclean projectiles, straight, to jail; and besieged the
Hochmeister's Burg (BASTILLE of Thorn, with a few Ritters in it),
all the artillery and all the throats and hearts of the place
raging deliriously upon it. So that the poor Bitters, who had no
chance in resisting, were in few days obliged to surrender; [8th
February, 1454, says Voigt (viii. 361); 16th, says Kohler
(Munzbelustigungen, xxii. 110).] had to come out in
bare jerkin; and Thorn ignominiously dismissed them into space
forevermore,--with actual 'kicks,' I have read in some Books,
though others veil that sad feature. Thorn threw out its old
parent in this manner; swore fealty to the King of Poland;
and invited other Towns and Knightages to follow the example.
To which all were willing, wherever able.

"War hereupon, which blazed up over Preussen at large,--Prussian
Covenant and King of Poland VERSUS Teutsch Ritterdom,--and lasted
into the thirteenth year, before it could go out again; out by
lack of fuel mainly. One of the fellest wars on record, especially
for burning and ruining; above '300,000 fighting-men' are
calculated to have perished in it; and of towns, villages,
farmsteads, a cipher which makes the fancy, as it were, black and
ashy altogether. Ritterdom showed no lack of fighting energy;
but that could not save it, in the pass things were got to.
Enormous lack of wisdom, of reality and human veracity, there had
long been; and the hour was now come. Finance went out, to the
last coin. Large mercenary armies all along; and in the end not
the color of money to pay them with; mercenaries became desperate;
'besieged the Hochmeister and his Ritters in Marienburg;'--finally
sold the Country they held; formally made it over to the King of
Poland, to get their pay out of it. Hochmeister had to see such