Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/473

Rh the black end came to them. Hei! that was a worthy battle. When I shut my eyes now I see the field there before me."

And closing his lids he was silent, merely moving the coals lightly in the ashes, till Yagenka, impatient for the narrative, asked,—

"How was it?"

"How was it?" repeated the old man. "I remember the place as if I were looking at it this moment. There was brush, and on the right a swamp, and a strip of rye, a little field of it. But after the battle there was neither brush, nor swamp, nor rye; nothing but iron on all sides, swords, axes, spears, beautiful armor, one piece on the top of another, as if some one had covered the whole sacred earth with them. Never have I seen so many slain people together, never have I seen so much human blood flowing."

Matsko's heart was strengthened again by this remembrance, so he cried,—

"It is true! The Lord Jesus is merciful! They seized hold of the kingdom at that time, like a fire or a pestilence. They destroyed not only Lenchytsa and Sieradz, but many other towns also. And what? Our nation is tremendously vigorous, and has inexhaustible strength in it. Even if thou, O dog brother of a German, seize a Pole by the throat thou'It not choke him, he will knock out thy teeth for thee. For just look! King Kazimir has built up Lenchytsa and Sieradz in such beauty that they are better than ever, and meetings take place as of old in them, and the Knights of the Cross who were trampled at Plovtsi are lying there and rotting. God grant such an end to them always!"

The old man, hearing these words, began at first to nod his head in agreement, but at last he said,—

"They are not lying there, and perhaps they are not rotting; the king commanded foot soldiers to dig ditches after the battle, and men from the neighborhood came to help in the work, till their backs were all breaking. We put away the Germans in ditches and covered them in good order, so that disease might not hatch from them, but they did not stay there."

"How, not stay? What happened?"

"I did not see this myself, but I tell what people said later After the battle an awful wind came, which lasted twelve weeks, but only in the night-time. In the day the sun shone as is proper, but at night the wind almost tore