Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/359

Rh Tolima raised his bands to his ears and bowed his head; afterward, at a sign from Yurand, he bowed and withdrew. The knight turned to Zbyshko then, and said with emphasis:

"There is enough in the treasury to tempt the greatest greediness, and ransom not merely one, but a hundred captives. Remember this."

"But why dost thou give me Spyhov?" inquired Zbyshko

"I give thee more than Spyhov, for I give thee my child.'

"And the hour of death is unknown," said the priest.

"Indeed, it is unknown," repeated Yurand, as if with sadness. "For instance, not long ago the snow covered me, and, though God saved me, I have not my former strength."

"By the dear God! " cried Zbyshko, "what has changed in you since yesterday? and you are more willing to mention death than Danusia! By the dear God!"

"Danusia will return," answered Yurand. "God's care is above her. But hear what I say; when she returns, take her to Bogdanets, and leave Spyhov in care of Tolima. He is a trusty man, and this is a difficult neighborhood. There they will not seize her on a rope from thee, there it is safe."

"Hei!" cried Zbyshko, "but you are talking now as it were from the other world. What does this mean?"

"I have been more than half in the other world, and now it seems to me that some kind of sickness has laid hold of me. But my child is the question for me, for she is all that I have. Though I know that thou lovest her—"

Here he stopped, and drawing from its sheath a short sword of the kind called misericordia, he turned the hilt of it toward Zbyshko.

"Swear to me on this cross," said he, "that thou wilt never do her a wrong, and wilt love her always."

Zbyshko, with tears in his eyes, threw himself on his knees in a moment, and putting his finger on the hilt, exclaimed,—

"By the Holy Passion, I will do her no wrong, and I will love her always."

"Amen!" said the priest.

Yurand put the misericordia into its sheath and opened his arms to Zbyshko.

"Now thou art my child too!"

After that they separated, for deep night had come, and for some days they had had no good rest. Zbyshko, however, rose next morning at dawn, for the evening before he had been afraid that some sickness was coming on Yurand,