Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/487

Rh princess told me that be had squeezed out of it. He is the man whom we are to meet in Schytno. It is well that we have a letter from Lichtenstein, for likely the dog brothers fear him more than even the Grand Master. They say that he has weight, that he is cruel and very strict, and moreover vengeful. He does not forgive the slightest injury. I should not go to Schytno so confidently without this letter."

"And what is the name of that old man?"

"Siegfried de Löwe."

"God grant us to defend ourselves against him."

"God grant!"

Here Matsko laughed, and after a time continued,—

"The princess in Plotsk said to me, 'The wrong you commit is that of lambs against wolves, but in this case of the wolves three are no longer living, for the innocent lambs have slaughtered them.' And she is right if the truth be told."

"But Danusia and her father?"

"I asked the same question of the princess. But I am glad in soul that it seems very dangerous to wrong us; we understand, seest thou, how to grasp an axe and use it worthily. As to Danusia and Yurand, I think, as Hlava does, that they are no longer in this world, but really no one knows exactly. I am sorry indeed for Yurand, since during life he was consumed with grief for his daughter, and if dead he has died an awful death."

"When any one mentions him in my presence, I think immediately of papa, who is no longer in this life," answered Yagenka.

And she raised her moist eyes. Matsko nodded, and said,—

"He is in God's assembly and surely in endless light, for a better man than he there was not in our whole kingdom."

"Oi, there was not, there was not!" sighed Yagenka.

Further conversation was interrupted by the peasant guide, who reined in his colt all at once, then turning, flew toward Matsko at a gallop, and cried in a strange and terrified voice,—

"Oh, for God's sake! Look, lord knight, some one is coming toward us down the hillside!"

"Who? Where?" inquired Matsko.

"Over there! It must be a giant, or something."

—4