Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/211

Rh is true, but so large that all eyes must be gladdened at sight of them. On the smaller table shone a plate of pure silver, prepared for the abbot, and also a tankard carved wonderfully; both of these had been won with other wealth from the Frisians.

Matsko and Zbyshko invited at once to the table; but the abbot, who had eaten heartily before leaving Zyh's house, refused, all the more since something else held him occupied. From the first moment of his coming, he had looked carefully and also unquietly at Zbyshko, as if wishing to find on him traces of fighting; seeing the calm face of the young man, he was evidently impatient, till at last he could restrain his curiosity no longer.

"Let us go to the small room," said he, "and talk of the mortgage. Resist not, or I shall be angry!"

Then he turned to the clerics and thundered,—

"But sit ye here quietly, and let me have no listening at the doorway!" Then he opened the door to the room, in which he could hardly find place, and after him entered Matsko and Zbyshko. There, when they had seated themselves on boxes, the abbot turned to his youthful relative,—

"Didst thou go back to Kresnia?"

"I did."

"Well, and what?"

"I gave money to celebrate mass for my uncle's recovery, and returned."

The abbot moved impatiently on the box. "Ha!" thought he, "he did not meet Stan or Vilk; maybe they were not there, maybe he did not look for them. I was mistaken!"

But he was angry because he thought that he had been mistaken, and because his calculation had failed, so his face grew red at once, and he panted,—

"Let us talk of the mortgage," said he, after a while. "Have ye money?—if ye have not, the land is mine."

At this Matsko, who knew how to act with him, rose in silence, opened the box on which he was sitting, took out a bag of gryvens already prepared, as it seemed, and said:

"We are poor people, but we have money, and we will pay what is proper, as it stands on the 'paper' and as I have promised with the sign of the Holy Cross. If you wish increased pay for the management and the cattle, we will not oppose, we will pay your demand, and embrace your feet, benefactor."