Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/486

48 breeze blew, which filled people's bosoms with health and good feeling. Wheat was green in the fields, the meadows were covered richly with flowers, and pine woods gave out the odor of resin. Over the whole road to Lidzbark, and thence to Dzialdovo, and farther to Niedzbov, the travellers saw not a single cloud on the sky. In Niedzbov at night came the earliest shower, with thunder, heard then for the first time that spring. The shower was a short one, and next morning the dawn appeared clear, rosy, golden, and so filled with light that as far as the eye could see everything glittered like strings of pearls and diamonds; the whole earth seemed to smile at the sky and to rejoice in the wealth of existence.

On that morning they went out of Niedzbov toward Schytno. The Mazovian boundary was not distant, and they could have turned to Spyhov easily. There was a moment even when Matsko thought of doing so, but after weighing everything carefully, he chose to push on directly to that terrible nest of the Order in which a part of Zbyshko's fate had been decided so gloomily. He took a peasant guide, therefore, and commanded him to lead the escort to Schytno, though a guide was not absolutely needed, for a straight road led on from Niedzbov, and on this road German miles were marked with white stones at the wayside.

The guide went some tens of steps in advance; after him came Matsko and Yagenka on horseback; then, rather far behind them, was Hlava with the fair Anulka; and still farther were wagons surrounded by armed attendants. It was early in the morning. The rosy color had not left the eastern side of the sky yet, though the sun was shining well, changing to opals the drops of dew on the grass and the trees.

"Art thou not afraid to go to Schytno?" asked Matsko.

"I am not," answered Yagenka. "The Lord God is above me, for I am an orphan."

"Thou hast cause to fear, for they keep no faith in that place. Indeed Danveld was the worst of dogs; Yurand rubbed out him and Gottfried—so Hlava says. The second after Danveld was Rotgier, who fell under Zbyshko's axe, but the old man too is unpitying, sold to the devil. People know nothing clearly, but I think that if Danusia has perished it is at his hands. They say that some misfortune met him as well as the others, but in Plotsk the