“Your Majesty! The Grand Master Ulryk sends you and your brother (omitting the title of duke) through us, the deputies standing here, two swords for help so that you, with him and his army, may delay less and may fight more boldly than you have shown, and also that you will not continue hiding and staying in the forest and groves, and will not postpone the battle. And if you believe that you have too little space to form your ranks, the Prussian Master Ulryk, to entice you to battle, will withdraw from the plain which he took for his army, as far as you want, or you may instead choose any field of battle so that you do not postpone the battle any longer.”
So much from the heralds. And it was noticed that during the deputies’ speech the Teutonic army, confirming the statement conveyed by the heralds, withdrew to a much vaster field to give proof by deed of the truthfulness of the secret orders given to the heralds.
It was indeed a foolish statement and did not befit their rule. They did it as if they were convinced that fate and the destiny of each of them on that day depended on their plans and was in their power. And King Wladyslaw, having listened to the boastful and impudent words of the Teutonic deputies, accepted the swords from their hands, and without any anger or resentment, but with tears, responded without hesitation to the heralds, with strange humility, patience and modesty. “Even though”, he said, “I do not need the swords of my enemies, as I have in my army a sufficient amount, however, in the name of God, for securing greater help, protection and defense in my just cause, I accept these two swords brought by you and sent by the enemies who desire my blood and my destruction as well as that of my army. I will turn to Him as to the most just avenger of pride, which is unbearable, to His Mother, the Virgin Mary, and to my patrons and those of my Kingdom: Stanislaw, Adalbert, Waclaw, Florian, and Jadwiga, and I will ask them to turn their anger against the enemies, the proud as well as the wicked, who cannot be appeased and led to peace by any just manner, by any modesty, by any of my requests, if they do not spill blood, do not tear out entrails and do not break necks. Placing my trust in the most sure defense of God and His saints, and in their steadfast help, I am sure that they will shield me and my people with their might and intercession and will not allow me and my people to succumb to the violence of such horrible enemies with whom I strove for peace so many times. I would not be reluctant to conclude it even at this moment, if only it could be done according to just conditions. I would withdraw the hand extended to battle even now, although I see that heaven most clearly foretells my victory in battle by the swords you have brought me. I do not at all claim the choice of a battlefield, but, as becomes a Christian and a Christian king, I leave it to God, wishing to have whatever place of battle and whatever outcome of the war that God's mercy and fate will determine for me today, hopeful that the heavens will put an end to the Teutonic relentlessness so that as a result, their wicked and unbearable pride will be defeated once and for all. For I am sure that heaven will support a more valid cause. On the field we tread, on which the battle will be waged, Mars, the mutual and just judge of war, will erase and humiliate the impudence of my enemies, which reaches to the skies”. The two aforemen–tioned swords, sent out of pride by the Teutonic Knights to the Polish king, are kept to this day in the royal treasury in Cracow to remind us of and bear witness to the pride and defeat of the one side and the humility and triumph of the other.
