Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/427

Rh "Brother Rotgier—"

"Brother Rotgier is slain."

Siegfried pushed up to the sleigh in which on straw lay a body covered with a mantle, and raised the mantle.

"Bring a light," said he, pushing his cowl aside.

One of the soldiers brought forward a torch, by the light of which Siegfried saw Rotgier's face pale as snow, frozen, surrounded by a dark kerchief with which they had bound his chin, so that his mouth might not open. The whole face was contracted, and thereby so changed that one might think him some other person. The eyes were covered with their lids, blue spots were around the eyes and on the temples. The cheeks were glazed with frost.

Siegfried gazed for a long time amid unbroken silence. Others looked at him, for they knew that he was as a father to the dead man, and that he loved him. But no tear flowed from his eyes; on his face there was merely a sterner expression than usual, and a certain icy calm.

"They sent him hither in that form!" said he at last.

But the next moment he turned to the castle steward and said,—

"Have a coffin made before midnight, and place the body in the chapel."

"There is one coffin left of those made for the men slain by Yurand; I will have it covered with cloth."

"And have a mantle placed over it," said Siegfried, covering Rotgier's face; "not one like this, but a mantle of the Order."

After a moment he added,—

"Do not close the lid."

The people approached the sleigh, Siegfried pulled the cowl over his head again, but called to mind something before going, for he asked,—

"Where is Van Krist?"

"Slain also," answered one of the men, "but they buried him in Tsehanov, for he had begun to decay."

"That is well."

Then he walked away slowly, and returning to the chamber sat down in the same armchair in which the news had found him; and he sat motionless, with a stony face, and sat so long that the boy grew alarmed and pushed his head in through the door more and more frequently. Hour followed hour; the usual noise ceased in the castle; only from the direction