Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/442

4 recover; if he does, whether he will return. Even should he recover and return, Father Kaleb has read his will, and he has declared to all that the young lord is his heir."

This news produced, it was clear, an immense impression on Matsko, for it was so favorable and unfavorable that he could not grasp it, nor bring into order the feelings which shook him one after another. The news that Zbyshko had married pricked him painfully at the first moment, for he loved Yagenka as if he had been her father, and wished with all his soul to unite her and Zbyshko. But on the other hand he had grown accustomed to look on the matter as lost, and again Yurand's daughter brought that which Yagenka could not bring, the favor of Prince Yanush, and a dowry which, she being an only child, was much greater. Matsko saw Zbyshko in his mind as the prince's comes, lord in Bogdanets and Spyhov; nay more, a castellan in the future. The thing was not improbable, for people said also in those days of a poor noble: "He had twelve sons; six fell in battle, and six became castellans." Both nation and family were on the highroad to greatness. Considerable property could only help Zbyshko on that road; hence Matsko's greed and his family pride had something in which to find comfort. Still the old man had no lack of reasons for fear. He had gone once himself to the Knights of the Cross to save Zbyshko, and had brought back iron between his ribs from that journey, and now Zbyshko had gone to Malborg, as if into the throat of the wolf. "Will he wait for his wife, or for death there? They will not look on him kindly," thought Matsko,—"he who has just killed a famed knight, and before that rushed against Lichtenstein. They, the dog bloods, love vengeance." At this thought the old knight was concerned greatly. It occurred to him also that as Zbyshko was choleric he would not escape without a battle against some German. But touching this he felt less fear. Matsko's greatest dread was that they might seize him. "They had seized Yurand and his daughter, they had not hesitated on a time to seize the prince himself in Zlotorya; why should they spare Zbyshko?"

Here this question occurred to him, "What would happen if the young fellow, though he should escape from the hands of the knights, were not to find his wife anywhere?" For an instant Matsko comforted himself with the thought that Zbyshko would inherit Spyhov after her, but that was brief comfort. The old man was concerned greatly