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388 nor the letters which Rotgier wrote before the combat. Thou wilt not save any one, and wilt destroy thyself."

"So help me God," said Zbyshko, rising and crossing his palms, I will go to Malborg, and if need be beyond the sea. So bless me, O Christ, as I shall seek her with the last breath in my nostrils, I will not stop unless I perish. It is easier for me to beat Germans and fight in armor, than for the orphan to groan in a dungeon. Oi, easier! easier!"

And he spoke, as indeed he did whenever he mentioned Danusia, with such excitement and in such pain that at moments the words were wrested from him, as if some one were grasping his throat. The princess saw that it would be vain to seek to dissuade him, and that to hold the man back one would have to thrust him manacled into a dungeon.

But Zbyshko could not set out immediately. Knights of that period disregarded all obstacles, but they were not permitted to break knightly custom, which commanded every victor in a duel to pass the day of his triumph on the field of combat and stay there till the following midnight. This was done to prove that he was master of the field, and to show that he was ready for combat in case a relative or friend of the vanquished wished to challenge. This custom was observed by whole armies, who thus lost frequently the advantage which promptness after victory might have brought them. Zbyshko did not even try to escape this unbending ordinance, and, after strengthening himself to some degree and putting on his armor, he remained beneath a gloomy winter sky within the courtyard of the castle till midnight, waiting for an enemy who could not come from any side whatever.

Only at midnight, when the heralds announced by sound of trumpet his victory decisively, did Mikolai summon him to supper, and immediately after to a consultation with Prince Yanush.