Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/251

Rh the Kurpie! Among the Kurpie a boy of seven years gets nothing to eat till he shoots down his food from the top of a pine-tree."

"Of what are ye talking?" asked on a sudden Zbyshko, whose ears had been struck frequently by the word "Kurpie."

"We are talking of the Kurpie and the English bowmen. This knight says that the English, and therefore the Scotch, surpass all."

"I, too, saw them at Vilno. Oh, pshaw! I heard their arrows around my ears. There, too, from all countries were knights who declared that they would eat us without salt; but when they had tried us once and a second time they lost desire for the food."

Matsko laughed, and repeated Zbyshko's words to De Lorche.

"That was mentioned at various courts," replied the Knight of Lorraine; "the bravery of your knights was praised, but they were blamed because they defend pagans against the cross."

"We defended against invasion and injustice a people who wanted baptism. The Germans wished to hide them behind paganism, so as to have an excuse for war."

"God will judge them," said De Lorche.

"And He may judge them soon," replied Matsko.

But the Knight of Lorraine, hearing that Zbyshko had fought at Vilno made inquiries of Matsko, because tidings of knightly battles and duels fought there had gone about the world widely. The imagination of Western warriors was roused, especially by that duel in which four French and four Polish knights had engaged. So De Lorche began now to look with more esteem on Zbyshko as a man who had taken part in such famous battles; and he rejoiced in heart that he would have to meet no common person.

They went on in apparent concord, showing politeness to each other at halting-places and entertaining each other with wine, of which De Lorche had considerable supplies in his wagons. When, from conversation between him and Matsko, it turned out that Ulrica de Elner was not a maiden, but a matron forty years old, with six children, Zbyshko's pride was the more indignant that that strange foreigner not only dared to compare an "old woman" to Danusia, but to exact superiority. He thought, however, that perhaps the man was not in full mind, that he was one for whom a dark chamber and whips would be better than a journey through the world,