Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/444

6 kindness he slew so many of our men that a good battle would not have slain more of them.'"

"Then they did show Yurand some girl?"

"The report is that they did, God alone knows. Perhaps this is not true, and perhaps they showed him another girl. That the master of Spyhov killed people is true, and the Knights are ready to take oath that they never carried off his daughter. Oh, this is a terribly difficult matter. Even if the Grand Master should give an order they will say that they have never had the girl. Who can convict them? The case is all the more difficult since the courtiers at Tsehanov speak of a letter from Yurand in which he states that his daughter is not with the Knights of the Cross."

"But maybe she is not."

"I beg your Grace! If bandits carried her away it was only to get a ransom. Besides, bandits could not have written the letter, nor imitated Yurand's seal, nor sent an honest-looking escort."

"True, but what did the Knights of the Cross want of her?"

"Revenge on Yurand. They prefer revenge to mead and wine, and as to cause, they have cause enough. The master of Spyhov was a terror to the Order, and that which he has done just now has enraged them to the utmost. My lord too, as I hear, raised hands on Lichtenstein, and he has killed Rotgier. God aided me in wrenching the arm of that dog brother, Danveld. Ei! just think of it, there were four of them, cursed be their mothers! Now only one is alive, and he is old. Your Grace, we can bite also."

Again came a moment of silence.

"Thou art clever," said Matsko at last. "To thy thinking what will they do with her? "

"Prince Vitold was a mighty prince; they say that the German Caesar bowed as low as his girdle to him, and how did the Knights treat Vitold's children? Are their castles few? Are their dungeons few? Are their walls few? Are their ropes and halters few?"

"By the living God!" exclaimed Matsko.

"God stop them from hiding away my young master, even if he has a letter from Prince Yanush, and goes with Pan de Lorche, who is a powerful person and related to princes. Indeed I had no wish to come hither, for there it would be easier to fight, but he commanded me. I heard him talking once to the old master of Spyhov. 'Art thou cunning?'