The besieged resolved to perish. They built up a great pile of wood, and threw on to it all that they held of most value. That done, they slew one another; fathers killed their children, husbands their wives, and put the bodies on the pile. The few who remained arranged themselves in pairs and stabbed one another; those who died first were placed on the pile by those who died later. The elder of the people stood apart and watched everything to the end. When all the others were dead he killed his wife, put her on the pile, and set fire to it, then he mounted the blazing wood, killed himself, and burned with his people. When the knights broke in they found no one to finish, and had merely to tell in their annals of the dreadful tragedy in which they had played the part both of actors and of audience.
Gedimin declared entire liberty to the Orthodox Church, and before his countrymen he announced himself a defender of that pagan faith to which they adhered so devotedly. In Vilna the znitch (sacred fire) was maintained without dying, and every rite of that interesting Lithuanian religion was supported in its primitive vigor. For this he was denounced, and the Livonian Knights began war for that cross the symbol of which, together with a sword, they wore embroidered on their mantles.
Gedimin went out to meet them, and this was his last encounter with Germans. On the right bank of the Niemen in that Jmud land was a strong fortress, Velona, a defense against Germans, almost on the edge of that district which the Knights of the Cross and Livonia had conquered. Thus far they had not been able to take Velona, and even now they did not venture to storm it. They determined to destroy the stronghold in another way. They built a fortress at each side of it, and set about starving out the garrison.
Gedimin came to the rescue of his people, and was soon besieging [[334]]the Germans in their two fortresses. Firearms had become known in the West only a short time before, and the Germans were now using guns, which later on were called “squealers.” During the conflict, Gedimin was killed by a ball. He was taken to Vilna and seated on his favorite horse. By him were placed his faithful armor-bearer, his hunting-dogs and falcons, and he and they were then burned according to the primitive ritual of the Lithuanians. With him were burned three German knights in full armor, and much booty taken from Germans.
Gedimin had married twice, each time a Russian princess. Five of his sons were Orthodox and belong entirely to Russian history. Of five daughters, four received Orthodox baptism, and two—Maria, the widow of Dmitri of Tver, surnamed Terrible Eyes, and Augusta, the first wife of Ivan Kalitá’s son—died nuns. Gedimin left a domain extending from the Niemen to the Lower Dnieper and the Dniester, including Kief, the ancient capital. This state, by special structure, population and religion, was for the greater part Russian, especially in language.
Of Gedimin’s sons who survived him, seven are mentioned. Of these the ablest and most important was Olgerd, with whom his brother, Keistut, was associated closely. Olgerd’s first wife was a daughter of the Vitebsk prince who left no sons, and through this wife Olgerd inherited her father’s possessions. Soon after Gedimin’s death, Olgerd seized power over all his brothers, took Vilna and became the one ruler of Lithuania. This meant at that time Kief and the best part of Russia.
Russian chronicles, without praising Olgerd, give him full justice. His self-restraint was unparalleled. He refrained from vain things most carefully, from sports and amusements of all kinds. He drank no wine, beer or mead. He was temperate in every way; from this, he acquired clear reason and great keenness. His mind was ever working; he toiled day and night at extending his dominion; he won many countries and lands; he subjected cities with all the broad regions under them; he increased his possessions untiringly. Olgerd was equally at home in Lithuania and Russia. He spoke with the Jmud men like a neighbor; Russian was his language from childhood. With the Knights of the Cross he could speak in German, and he knew something of Latin. [[335]]
With Lithuanian princes love of war was inborn, but Olgerd surpassed all men in the cunning of his sudden attacks, and the subtle concealment of his purpose. There was no man more unsparing and ruthless than Olgerd. He warred with the Mongols near Kief, and hunted them out of Podolia. He inflicted bloody defeat on the Germans near the Niemen, while helping Lyubart, his brother. He drove the Poles from Volynia and Galitch, and fought with them in their own places; he threatened also the Hungarians. Olgerd’s sword was the most terrible ever wielded by a man of his dynasty; while defending Polotsk from Livonia it defended Volynia and Kief from Polish inroads.
But that which might satisfy Mindog or Gedimin could not satisfy Olgerd. To be prince of Lithuania and one half of Russia was not his ambition; he was striving for more than that, striving for power over Smolensk, Tver, Pskoff, Novgorod, and Moscow. He aspired to be ruler of all Russia. The Moscow princes had in him a dangerous enemy. Hence the Grand Prince of Moscow, in struggling to consolidate Russia, and put himself at the head of it, had a problem of the utmost complication and difficulty. [[336]]