Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/123

Rh "Would to God thou hadst not been born!"

"You have told the castellan that you would give your head for mine."

"Whence knowest thou?"

"Povala of Tachev told me."

"Well, what of that?"

"The castellan told you that disgrace would fall on me, and on our whole race. Would it not be a still greater disgrace were I to flee hence and leave you to the law's vengeance?"

"What vengeance? What can the law do to me when I shall die anyhow? For God's sake, have reason."

"But have it you all the more. May God punish me if I desert you, a man sick and old. Pfu! shame!"

Silence followed; nothing was to be heard but the heavy, rattling breath of Matsko, and the call of the bowmen standing on guard at the gate. It was dark night now outside.

"Hear me," said Matsko at last, in a broken voice. "It was no shame for Prince Vitold to flee in disguise, it will be no shame for thee—"

"Hei!" answered Zbyshko, with a certain sadness. "Vitold is a great prince. He has a crown from the king's hands; he has wealth and dominion; but I, a poor noble, have nothing—save honor."

After a while he cried, as if in a sudden outburst of anger,—

"But can you not understand this, that I so love you that I will not give your head for mine?"

Matsko rose on trembling feet, stretched forth his hand, and, though the nature of people in that age was as firm as if forged out of iron, he bellowed on a sudden in a heart-rending voice,—

"Zbyshko!"

On the following day court servants began to draw beams to the square for a scaffold which was to be erected before the main gate of the city hall.

Still Princess Anna continued to take counsel with Yastrembets, and Father Stanislav of Skarbimir, and other learned canons skilled equally in written and customary law. She was encouraged to these efforts by the words of the castellan, who declared that, should they find "law, or pretext," he would not be slow in releasing Zbyshko. They counselled long and earnestly as to whether it was possible to find something; and