“Brother Wyszek.” Prokop became serious. “You know very well what to say, for you are our man, a righteous Christian, you take Communion from the Chalice like us. But you’re also a Pole and a patriot, so proceed such that Poland also benefits. The Teutonic Knights are still a threat to Poland—Grunwald didn’t help much and the Teutonic Order still hangs over us like the Sword of Damocles. Should King Władysław choose to hear the Pope’s complaints and pleas, he’ll join the crusade and send a Polish army against us, and the Teutonic Knights will immediately strike from the north. The House of Brandenburg and the Silesian dukes will attack and Poland will fall. Poland will fall, Brother Wyszek.”

“King Władysław knows this,” replied Raczyński. “I can’t imagine he’ll join the crusade. But the Polish king cannot blatantly oppose the Pope. In any case, satires proliferate and Malbork claims Jogaila is a secret pagan and idolater, claims he is in league with pagans, in cahoots with the Devil. Thus, the Polish king will strive for peace. For a settlement between Bohemia and Rome. And Rome is eager for such a settlement—”

“‘Eager,’” Little Prokop sneered. “The harder we tan the hide of the Roman crusaders, the more eager it’ll be.”

“That’s the sacred truth,” agreed the Pole. “If the Pope could take you—I mean us—with fire and sword, he would. He’d torture, execute, impale, burn alive and drown, singing Gloria in excelsis all the while. They’d do to us what they did to the Albigensians, then announce it was ‘to the glory of God.’ But it turns out they cannot. They’re too weak, so they want to parley.”

“I know they do.” Little Prokop snorted contemptuously. “But why do we have to want that? We’re kicking their arses, not they ours.”

“Brother.” Raczyński raised his hands in a desperate gesture. “Brother, you’re repeating to me what I know. If you’ll allow, I’ll tell you what the Polish King Władysław knows. What every Christian king in Christian Europe knows. For the time being, the Church rules the world and wields two swords: the spiritual and the secular. Put more simply: the Pope wields secular power and the king is merely his plenipotentiary. Put even simpler: the Kingdom of Bohemia won’t be a kingdom until the Pope approves the King of Bohemia. Only then will peace and order arise and Bohemia return to Europe as a Christian kingdom.”