Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/111

Rh had brought to Christianity the last pagan people in Europe. The learned called to mind how much she had done for the Academy; the clergy, how much for the glory of God; statesmen, how much she had done for peace among Christian monarchs; Jurists, how much for justice; the poor, how much for their poverty; and it could not find place in the heads of any that a life so needful to the kingdom and the whole world might be cut down untimely.

Meanwhile on the 13th of July the bells announced sadly the death of the child. The city seethed up again, and alarm seized people; crowds besieged Vavel a second time, inquiring for the health of the queen.

But this time no one came out with good news. On the contrary, the faces of lords entering the castle or going out through the gates were gloomy, and every day more gloomy. It was said that the priest, Stanislav of Skarbimir, a master of liberal sciences in Cracow, did not leave the queen, who received communion daily. It was said also that immediately after each communion her room was filled with a heavenly light,—some even saw it through the window; this sight, however, rather terrified hearts devoted to the lady, as a sign that, for her, life beyond the earth had begun already.

Some did not believe that a thing so dreadful could happen, and those strengthened themselves with the thought that the just heavens would stop with one sacrifice. But on Friday morning, July 17th, it was thundered among people that the queen was dying. Every person living hastened to the castle. The city was deserted to the degree that only cripples remained in it, for even mothers with infants hurried to the gates. Cellars were closed, no food was prepared. All affairs stopped, and under the castle of Vavel there was one dark sea of people—disquieted, terrified, but silent.

About one o'clock in the afternoon a bell sounded on the tower of the cathedral. People knew not at once what that meant, but fear raised the hair on their heads. All faces, all eyes were turned to the tower, to the bell moving with increasing swing, the bell, the complaining groan of which others in the city began to accompany; bells were tolled in the church of the Franciscans, the Holy Trinity, and the Virgin Mary, and throughout the length and the breadth of the city.

The city understood at last what those groans meant; the souls of men were filled with terror and with such pain as if