Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/390

366 "Should thy destruction be to the glory of the Cross and the Order thou art bound to go. But no! Destruction is not awaiting thee. They will not harm a guest unless some one may wish perhaps to challenge thee, as did that young knight who challenged all of us—He, or some other may challenge, but of course that is not terrible."

"God grant it to come! But they may seize me and cast me into a dungeon."

"They will not. Remember that Yurand wrote a letter to the prince, and moreover thou wilt go to complain against Yurand. Thou wilt tell truly what he did in Schytno, and they must believe thee. The case is this : we informed him first that there was a girl in our possession, we begged him to come and look at her; he came, he went mad, killed the comtur, slaughtered our people. Thus wilt thou speak,—but what can they say to thee in answer? The death of Danveld will be heralded throughout all Mazovia. In the face of that they will cease complaints. Evidently they will search for Yurand's daughter, but since Yurand himself wrote that she was not in our hands suspicion will not fall on us. We must be brave and shut their jaws, for they will think, if we do so, that were we guilty no man of us would dare go to them."

"That is true. After Danveld's funeral I will take the road immediately."

"May God bless thee, my son! If we do all that is proper, not only will they not detain thee, but they will perforce reject Yurand lest we say, 'See how they treat us!'"

"And we must complain thus at all foreign courts."

"The Grand Hospitaller will see to that for the good of the Order, and as a relative of Danveld."

"Yes, but if that Spyhov devil should recover and regain liberty?"

Siegfried glanced forward gloomily, then he answered slowly and with emphasis,—

"Even should he be free again he will not utter one word of complaint against the Order."

After that he began again to instruct Rotgier what to say and what to demand at the court of Mazovia.