THE SCENE: After being ousted from his position as the most powerful man in Poland, the former Duke Popiel had to suffer one last indignity before his life ended.
THE TEXT: Venerable old men also say that Popiel, driven out from the kingdom, suffered so much harassment from mice that he was transported by his attendants to an island, where he was defended for a long time in a wooden tower against those enraged animals which swam by there, until, deserted by everybody because of the deadly stench emanating from the multitudes of slaughtered mice, he died a most shameful death, devoured by those monsters.
– Gallus Anonymous, Gesta Principum Polonorum, 12 Century AD
