Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/449

Rh "There is a fool for thee, Zbyshko! That girl leaves her odor in the room!"

And the old man was sorry. He thought that if Zbyshko had taken her after their return home there would have been delight and pleasure there up to that moment. But now what? "Whenever she thinks of him the tear drops from her eye, and the fellow is wandering through the world, and will knock his head somewhere against Malborg fences till he breaks it; and the house here is empty, only weapons staring from the walls. No good from management, industry is profitless, Spyhov and Bogdanets useless, since there will be no one to whom it will be possible to leave them."

Grief began to storm then in Matsko's soul. "Wait, thou vagabond," said he aloud; "I will not go for thee, and do thou do what may please thee!"

But at the same moment a terrible yearning for Zbyshko came on him as if in spite. "No, I will not go," thought he, "but shall I sit here? This is the punishment of God! That I should not see that rascal even once again in life—this cannot be in any case! Again he has cut up a dog brother—and taken plunder. Another would have grown gray before winning a belt, but him the prince has belted already, and justly, though there are many splendid men among nobles; another like Zbyshko there is not, as I think." And growing altogether tender he examined the armor, the swords, and the axes which were growing dark in the smoke, as if considering which to take with him and which to leave behind. Then he went out of the room, first because he could not stay in it, and second to have the wagons tarred and a double portion of oats given the horses.

In the courtyard, where it was dark now, he remembered Yagenka, who a while before had mounted her horse, and again he grew sad on a sudden.

"If I go, then go," said he to himself, "but who will defend the girl here from Vilk and Stan? Would to God that a thunderbolt might split them!"

Meanwhile Yagenka was riding with little Yasko along the forest road homeward, and Hlava was dragging on in silence behind them, his heart filled with love and with sorrow. He had seen the girl's tears; now he was looking at her dark form, barely visible in the gloom, and he divined her pain and sorrow. It seemed to him also that at any moment the robber hands of Stan or Vilk might reach out after her from