Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/397

Rh at the door had been listening to the conversation, stepped into the middle of the room, took up the gauntlet, and said,—

"I am here!"

When he had spoken thus he cast his own gauntlet straight into Rotgier s face, and began in a voice which in the universal silence spread through the hall like thunder,—

"In the presence of God, in the presence of the worthy prince, and in presence of all the honorable knighthood of this land, I tell thee, Knight of the Cross, that thou liest like a dog against truth and justice—and I challenge thee into the lists to do battle on foot, or on horseback, with lances, with axes, with short swords or long ones—and not to loss of freedom, but to the last breath of life, to the death!"

In that hall one might have heard a fly on the wing. All eyes were turned to Rotgier, and to the challenging knight whom no one knew, for he had a helmet on his head, without a visor, it is true, but with round side pieces which went below his ears, covering the upper part of his face altogether and shading the lower part deeply. The Knight of the Cross was not less astonished than others. Confusion, pallor, and wild anger flashed across his face in succession, like lightning across a night sky. He seized the glove, which, slipping from his face, had caught on a link of his shoulder-piece, and inquired—

"Who art thou who callest on the justice of God?"

The other man unfastened the buckle under his chin, raised his helmet, from under which appeared a bright, youthful face, and said,—

"Zbyshko of Bogdanets, the husband of Yurand's daughter."

All were astounded, and Rotgier with the rest, for no one save the prince and princess, with Father Vyshonek and De Lorche, knew of Danusia's marriage. The Knights of the Cross felt certain that except her father, Danusia had no natural defender, but at that moment Pan de Lorche, came forward and said,—

"On my knightly honor I testify to the truth of his words; whoso dares to doubt it to him I say: here is my gauntlet."

Rotgier was a stranger to fear, and in his heart anger was storming at that moment; he would perhaps have raised that gauntlet also, but remembering that the man who had cast it down was himself a great lord, and a relative of the Count of