Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/117

Rh night-time and rattle their chains, for he is a stern man. Dost understand?"

"I understand. But this astonishes me, that you lost the first letter, for as Yurand caught the men who attacked you they must have had the letter."

"He did not catch all; something like five escaped. Such is our luck!"

Matsko coughed, spat blood again, and groaned some from pain in his breast.

"They wounded you badly," said Zbyshko. "How was it? From an ambush?"

"From a thicket so dense that a yard away nothing was visible. I was travelling without armor, since merchants had said that the road was safe—and the weather was hot."

"Who commanded the robbers? A Knight of the Cross?"

"Not a monk, but a man from Helmno who lives in Lentz, a German notorious for robbing and plundering."

"What happened to him? "

"Yurand has him in chains. But he has also two nobles of Mazovia in his dungeon; these he wishes to exchange for thee."

Again there was silence.

"Dear Jesus!" said Zbyshko, at length. "Lichtenstein will live, and he of Lentz also, while we must die unavenged. They will cut off my head, and you will not live through the winter."

"More than that, I shall not live until winter. If only I could save thee in some way!"

"Have you seen any one?"

"I have been with the castellan of Cracow; for when I heard that Lichtenstein had gone I thought that the castellan would favor thee."

"Has Lichtenstein gone?"

"He went to Malborg immediately after the queen's death. I was with the castellan, and he said: 'Your nephew's head will be cut off, not to please Lichtenstein, but because of the sentence; and whether Lichtenstein be present or absent, it is all one. Even were he to die, that would change nothing; for,' said he, 'law is according to justice,—not like a coat which may be turned inside out. The king,' said he, 'may pardon, but no one else.'"

"And where is the king?"

"After the funeral he went to Rus."

"Then there is no escape?"