Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/116

92 "But what has happened you?" And he gazed with astonishment at the emaciated face of the old warrior, which had fallen in and was as pale as linen; he looked on his bent figure and on his iron gray hair.

"What has happened?" repeated he.

Matsko seated himself on the plank bed, and for a while breathed heavily.

"What has happened!" said he at last. "Barely had I passed the boundary when Germans shot me in a forest, from a crossbow. Robber knights! knowest thou? It is hard yet for me to breathe. God sent me aid, or thou wouldst not see me here."

"Who saved you?"

"Yurand of Spyhov," answered Matsko.

A moment of silence followed; then Matsko said,—

"They attacked me, and half a day later he attacked them. Hardly one half of them escaped. He took me to his castle, and there in Spyhov I wrestled three weeks with death. God did not let me die, and though suffering yet, Iam here."

"Then you have not been at Malborg?"

"What had I to take there? The Germans stripped me naked, and with other things seized the letter. I returned to implore Princess Alexandra for a second one, but missed her on the road; whether I can overtake her, I know not, for I must also make ready for the other world."

Then he spat on his hand, which he stretched out toward Zbyshko and showed unmixed blood on it.

"Dost see? Clearly the will of God," added he, after a while.

Under the weight of gloomy thoughts both were silent some time, then Zbyshko inquired,—

"Do you spit blood all the time?"

"Why not, with an arrow-head fastened half a span deep between my ribs? Thou wouldst spit also never fear! But I grew better in Yurand's castle, though now I suffer terribly, for the road was long and I travelled fast."

"Oh! why did you hurry?"

"I wished to find Princess Alexandra here and get another letter. 'Go,' said Yurand to me, 'and bring back a letter. I shall have Germans here under the floor; I will let out one on his knightly word, and he will take the letter to the Grand Master.' Yurand keeps a number of Germans there always, and listens gladly when they groan in the