Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/309

Rh "Papa and I will come to Tsehanov," answered Danusia.

"If only sickness or something else does not attack thee. God guard thee from evil event. Thou must go to Spyhov, I know. Hei! thanks to the highest God, and the gracious lady that thou art mine, for the power of man cannot unmake a marriage."

But since that marriage had taken place in the night and mysteriously, and since immediately afterward a separation was to follow, a certain strange melancholy seized at moments, not only Zbyshko, but all. Conversation was interrupted. From time to time the fire ceased to blaze in the chimney, and peoples' heads sank in obscurity. Father Vyshonek threw new sticks on the coals then, and when a stick crackled with a plaintive sound, as it does sometimes when the wood is fresh, he said,—

"What dost thou wish for, O soul doing penance?"

The crickets answered him, and the increasing flame, which brought out from the shadow watching faces, was reflected in the armor of De Lorche, illuminating at the same time Danusia's white robe and the garland on her head.

The dogs in the yard barked again toward the forest as if at wolves.

And as the night passed silence fell more and more on them, till at last the princess said,—

"Dear Jesus! is it to be thus after a marriage? Better go to sleep; but since we must wait till morning, play to us on the lute, little flower, play, for the last time before thy going, to me and to Zbyshko."

Danusia, who was weary and drowsy, was glad to rouse herself with anything; so she sprang for the lute, and returning after a while with it sat by Zbyshko's bed.

"What am I to play?" asked she.

"What shouldst thou play," asked the princess, "if not that song which thou didst sing in Tynets, when Zbyshko saw thee the first time?"

"Hei! I remember—and till death I shall not forget," said Zbyshko. "After that always the tears came to my eyes when I heard it."

"I will sing it in that case," said Danusia. And straightway she began to finger the lute; then throwing her head back as usual she began:—

Oh, had I wings like a wild goose, I would fly after Yasek;