Cracow, the ancient capitol of Poland, remains a medieval city for it somehow escaped the devastation that leveled so many other European cities during the war. Cracow was once a flourishing member of the Hanseatic League, an association of independent merchant towns that exerted so much power and influence in the Middle Ages. The hugh sprawl of covered market still stands in the central square, dominated by a tower from which each night a trumpet tune sounds (the interesting thing is that in the midst of the sounding of the tune it is suddenly strangled and dies away.)

The story has it that a boy assigned to keep watch for the invading Tartars in the 13th century was felled by an enemy arrow in his throat even as he was trumpeting out a warning to the sleeping city. He had managed to sou…