Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/264

240 Fathers, at the edge appeared wolves, which, as the most wary, tried first to escape from the circle. Of these there were few. After they had come out on the plain and caught the odor of people, they plunged into the forest anew, seeking evidently another escape. Wild boars sprang out next and ran in a long black chain over the snowy expanse, seeming in the distance like a drove of tame pigs, which at the call of a woman hurry homeward with shaking ears. But that chain halted, listened, scented, turned and listened again, bore to one side toward the snares, sniffed the woodmen, moved again toward the hunters, grunting, approaching more and more cautiously, but still nearer, till at last the sound of iron was heard on the crossbows, then the whiz of arrows and the first blood stained the white, snowy surface.

A piercing squeal was heard and the drove scattered, as if struck by lightning; some went at random straight-forward, some rushed toward the snares, some ran either singly or in small groups, mixing among other beasts with which the plain was now swarming. At this time was heard clearly the sound of horns, the barking of dogs, and the distant noise of men advancing along the main line from the depth of the forest. The beasts of the wilderness, driven from both sides by the extended wings of the circle, filled the forest plain more and more densely. No sight like that could be seen in foreign parts, or even in other Polish lands, where there were no such wild forests as in Mazovia. The Knights of the Cross, though they had been in Lithuania, where at times bisons by striking an army produced confusion in it, wondered not a little at the immense number of beasts, but especially did De Lorche wonder. Standing near the princess and the damsels, like a stork on the watch, and unable to speak with any one, he had begun to be annoyed, while freezing in his armor, and thinking that the hunt was a failure. At last he saw before him whole herds of fleet-footed deer, yellow stags, and elks with weighty-horned heads, mingled together, storming over the plain, blinded with fear and seeking in vain for an exit.

The princess, in whom at sight of this the blood of her father Keistut began to play, sent shaft after shaft into that many-colored throng, and screamed with delight when a stricken deer or an elk rose in its career, then fell heavily and dug the snow with its feet. Damsels bent their faces often toward the crossbows, for the ardor of hunting had seized every person.