Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/274

250 ye want, then? Am I to command him not to defend himself whenever ye are pleased to attack him?"

"It was not the Order who attacked him, but guests, foreign knights," replied Danveld.

"The Order answers for guests, and besides, with them were men at arms from the Lubov garrison."

"Was the starosta to yield up guests, as for slaughter?"

At this the prince turned to Siegfried, and said,—

"See what justice becomes in your mouths, and see if your evasions are not offensive to God."

"De Bregov must be freed from captivity," answered the stern Siegfried; "for men of his family were chiefs in the Order, and have rendered great service to the Cross."

"And the death of Meinegger must be avenged," added Hugo.

The prince gathered the hair on both sides of his head, and rising from his seat, approached the Germans with an ominous face; but after a moment he remembered evidently that they were his guests; so he restrained himself once more, placed his hand on Siegfried's arm, and said,—

"Listen, starosta, you wear the cross on your mantle, so answer on that cross according to conscience. Was Yurand right or not?"

"De Bregov must be freed from captivity," answered Siegfried.

"God grant me patience," said the prince, after a moment of silence.

"The injustice which has met us in the persons of our guests is merely an additional cause of complaint," continued Siegfried, in a voice as sharp as a sword-edge. "Since the Order is an order, never in Palestine, or in Transylvania, or in pagan Lithuania up to this time, has one common man done us so much evil as that bandit of Spyhov. Your Princely Grace, we desire redress and punishment, not for one injustice, but a thousand; not for one battle, but for five hundred; not for one blood spilling, but for whole years of deeds for the like of which the fire of heaven should burn that godless nest of cruelty and wickedness. Whose groans are calling to God there for vengeance? Ours! Whose tears? Ours! In vain have we brought complaints, in vain have we called for judgment. Never has satisfaction been rendered us."

When he heard this Prince Yanush nodded his head. "In former years," said he, "Knights of the Cross were