Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/315

Rh "I shall see first to heating some beer for the journey, but I shall not give thee any."

"The commandment is to give drink to the thirsty. A new sin on your side!"

"Then I will give thee a measure of water, but for the moment, this is what I have ready—"

Thus speaking, he gathered as much snow as he could take in his gloved hands, and threw it at Sauderus' beard, who dodged, and said,—

"You have nothing to show in Tsehanov, for there is a tame bear in that place which shovels snow."

Thus they abused and chaffed each other mutually. Zbyshko did not prevent Sanderus from going with him, for this strange man amused him, and seemed also to be attached to his person. They left the hunting-lodge on a bright morning in a frost so great that it was necessary to blanket the horses. The entire country was covered with deep snow. The tops of the houses were barely indicated under it; in places the smoke seemed to come straight up from white drifts and go to the sky arrow-like, rosy from the morning sunlight, and spread at the top in the form of a bush, like plumes on a knight's helmet.

Zbyshko rode in a sleigh, first to spare his strength, and second because of the great cold, against which he could defend himself more easily in an equipage filled with hay and fur. He commanded the Cheh to sit with him and to have the crossbows at hand for defence against wolves: meanwhile he chatted with him pleasantly.

"In Prasnysh," said he, "we shall only feed our horses, warm ourselves, and move on then immediately."

"To Tsehanov?"

"First to Tsehanov, to salute the prince and princess and go to church."

"And then?"

Zbyshko smiled and answered,—

"Then who knows that we may not go to Bogdanets?"

The Cheh looked at him with astonishment. The idea flashed into his head that the young man might have given up Yurand's daughter, and it seemed to him the more likely since she had left the princess, and the report had come to his ears in the hunting-lodge that the lord of Spyhov was opposed to Zbyshko. Hence the honest fellow was rejoiced, though he loved Yagenka; still he looked at her as a star in the sky, and would have been delighted to purchase for her