Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/27

Rh "I am called Matsko of Bogdanets, and this stripling is the son of my brother; his name is Zbyshko. Our shield is the Blunted Horseshoe, with watchword Hail!"

"Where is your Bogdanets?"

"Oh, better ask me, lord brother, where it was, for it exists no longer. Even during the our Bogdanets was burned to its foundations, and what we had there people took from us; our serving-men fled. The place was left naked, for neighboring land-tillers went farther into the wilderness. I with my brother, the father of this stripling, built up our castle anew, but the next year water swept it away from us. After that my brother died, and then I was alone with his orphan. 'I shall not stay here,' thought I. At that time people were talking of war, and of this, that Yasko of Olesnitsa, whom King Vladislav sent to Vilno to succeed Mikolai of Moskorzov, was seeking knights diligently throughout Poland. As I knew Yanko, the worthy abbot of Tulcha, I pledged my land to.him, and with borrowed money bought arms and horses. I found for myself the outfit usual in war, this lad, who was twelve then, I seated on a pony, and away to Yasko of Olesnitsa."

"With this stripling?"

"My dear, he was not even a stripling at that time, but he was a sturdy little fellow. At twelve he could put his crossbow on the ground, press with his stomach, and so turn the bow crank that no Englishman whom we saw at Vilno could do better."

"Was he so strong?"

"He carried my helmet at twelve, and when thirteen winters old he carried my shield."

"Then there was no lack of wars there?"

"Thanks to, there was not. The prince was always urging the Knights of the Cross, and every year they sent expeditions to Lithuania against Vilno. Various nations went with them: English, who are the first of bowmen, French, Germans, Bohemians, Swiss, and Burgundians. They felled forests, built fortresses on the way, and at last harried Lithuania savagely with fire and sword, so that all the people who dwelt in that land wished to leave it, and search out another, even at the end of the world,—even among sons of Belial, if only far from Germans."

"It was reported here that all Lithuanians wished to go away with their children and wives; we did not believe that."