Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/414

390 Chapter, and he cannot help this, that everything in the Order is built on injustice; but he does not rejoice in the injustice. Go, go, Knight de Lorche, and tell him what has happened here. Those monks fear foreigners more than us, they fear lest people should tell at foreign courts of their treasons and dishonest deeds, but if the Grand Master asks you for proofs say this: 'To know the truth is God's work, to seek for it is man's. If thou wish proofs, lord, search for them; give command to stir up the castles, examine people; let us seek, for it is folly and a fable to say that bandits of the forest seized the orphan."

"Folly and a fable," repeated De Lorche.

"Bandits would not have raised their hands against the prince's court, nor against Yurand's daughter. And even had they taken her it would have been to get a ransom; and they themselves would have declared that they had her."

"I will tell all this," said the man of Lorraine, "and I will find De Bergov also. We are from the same country, and, though I do not know him, people say that he is a relative of the Count of Guelders. He has been in Schytno; let him tell the Grand Master what he has seen."

Zbyshko understood something of these words, and Mikolai interpreted what he did not understand. Then Zbyshko seized De Lorche by the body and pressed him to his bosom with such vigor that the knight was forced to groan.

"But dost thou wish to go in every case?" asked the prince of Zbyshko.

"I do, Gracious Lord. What else am I to do? I wished to take Schytno, even if I had to gnaw the walls through, but how can I begin war without permission?"

"The man who should begin war without permission would repent under the sword of an executioner," said Prince Yanush.

"Of course law is law," answered Zbyshko. "I wanted to challenge all who were at Schytno, but people said that Yurand had slaughtered them like bullocks; I could not tell who were living and who were dead. So help me God and the Holy Cross, I will not desert Yurand till my last breath."

"Thou speakest honorably and pleasest me," said Mikolai. "But as thou didst not fly alone to Schytno it is clear that thou hast wit, for even a dull man would guess that they have not kept there either Yurand or his daughter, but taken both to other castles. God has given thee Rotgier because thou camest hither."