Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/393

Rh from people, in Mazovia alone does the cross expose to certain destruction him who bears it"

"Not the cross exposes you," broke in the prince, angrily, "for we also kiss the cross, but your own criminality. And if somewhere else men receive you better than we do, it is because you are less known to them."

Then seeing that the knight was greatly offended by these words, he inquired,—

"Hast thou been in Schytno, or knowst thou what has happened there?"

"I have been in Schytno, and I know what has happened there," answered Rotgier, "and I have come hither not as the envoy of any one, but for this reason only, that the experienced and pious comtur of Insburg said to me: 'Our Grand Master loves the pious prince and confides in his honesty, hence while I hasten to Malborg do thou go to Mazovia and explain to him the wrongs and insults inflicted upon us, explain our misfortune. Be sure that that just ruler will not favor the disturber of peace, the savage attacker who shed as much Christian blood as if he were serving not the Saviour, but Satan.'"

And now he narrated how everything had happened in Schytno. How Yurand, invited by the brothers to see if the girl taken from the bandits was his daughter, instead of showing gratitude, had fallen upon them madly; killed Danveld, Brother Gottfried, the Englishman Hugo, Von Bracht, and two noble youths, not counting soldiers; how the brothers, remembering God's commands, and not wishing to kill any one, were forced at last to entangle in a net the raging maniac, who then turned his weapons on himself and wounded his own body dreadfully; finally how, not only in the castle, but in the town, there were people who in the midst of the winter storm heard on that night after the battle laughter and hideous voices crying out in the air: "Our Yurand! The enemy of the Cross! the spiller of innocent blood! Our Yurand!"

The whole narrative, but especially the last words of it, made a deep impression on all. Terror simply seized them. Has Yurand, thought they, really summoned unclean powers?—and deep silence fell on them. The princess, who was present, and who, loving Danusia, bore in her heart an incurable sorrow, turned to Rotgier with this sudden query,—

"You say, Knight, that when you had rescued the idiot

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