Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/441

Rh told slowly what had happened, and how it had happened. The old man listened eagerly, interrupting with questions at times, for not everything was clear in the narrative. Hlava did not know, for example, exactly when Zbyshko had married, for there had been no wedding, but he declared positively that there had been a ceremony performed at the instance of Anna Danuta, the princess, though it was announced publicly only after the arrival of Rotgier, with whom Zbyshko, after challenging him to the judgment of God, had fought in presence of the court of Mazovia.

"Ah! Has he fought?" cried Matsko, with flashing eyes, and immense curiosity. "Well, and what?"

"He cut the German in two; and God gave me luck also in fighting with Rotgier's attendant."

Matsko panted again, this time with satisfaction.

"Well, he is not to be laughed at. The last of the Grady, but, as God be my aid, not the least of them. Yes! and that time against the Frisians—a mere stripling in those days."

Then he looked once and a second time at the Cheh more attentively.

"But thou also dost please me. It is clear that thou art not lying. I know a liar even through a plank. That attendant I do not esteem overmuch; thou hadst no great work with him, as thou sayst, but thou didst wrench the arm of that dog-brother, Danveld, and earlier thou didst kill the wild bull,—those are praiseworthy deeds. But the plunder," asked Matsko on a sudden,—"was it considerable?"

"We took arms, horses, ten men, eight of whom the young lord has sent to you—"

"What did he do with the other two?"

"He sent them away with the body."

"Could not the prince send his own men? Those two will never come back to us."

Hlava smiled at such greed, which for that matter Matsko showed frequently, and he answered,—

"Spyhov is a great property."

"Great! But what of that? It is not his yet."

"Whose is it?"

Matsko rose up.

"Tell me! But Yurand?"

"Yurand is in a dungeon with the Knights of the Cross, and death is hanging over him. God knows whether he will