Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/49

Rh Matsko twisted the belt of his skin kaftan with anger, and said,—

"God daze thy eyes!"

"Listen," answered Zbyshko, calmly. "I have talked with Pan Mikolai, and he says that Yurand is seeking vengeance on the Germans for his wife. I will go and assist him. You have said, first of all, that it is nothing wonderful for me to fight with Germans, for I know them, and I know methods against them. Secondly, I shall find the peacock-plumes there at the boundary more quickly, and third, you know that no common man wears a peacock-plume above his head, so that if the Lord Jesus will grant the crests, he will grant booty at the same time. Finally, a captive taken there is not a Tartar. To settle such a one in the forest is not the same as—Pity me, O God!"

"What! hast lost thy reason, boy? There is no war now, and God knows when there will be."

"Oh, simplicity! The bears have made peace with the bee-keepers; bears injure no bee-nests now, they eat no honey. Ha! ha! But is it news to you that, though great armies are not warring, and though the king and the Grand Master have put their seals to parchment, there is always a terrible uproar on the boundary? If some one takes cattle, a number of villages will be burnt for each cow, and castles will be attacked. But what as to seizing boys and maidens and merchants on the highways? Do you remember earlier times, of which you yourself have told me? Was it hard for that Nalench who seized forty men who were going to the Knights of the Cross? He put them under the ground and would not let them out till the Grand Master sent him a wagon full of coin. Yurand of Spyhov does nothing else but seize Germans, and near the boundary there is work at hand always."

For a while they walked on in silence; meanwhile the daylight came, and bright sun-rays lighted the cliffs on which the monastery was built.

"God can give luck everywhere," said Matsko at last, with a satisfied voice. "Pray that He give it thee."

"It is sure that His favor is everything!"

"And think of Bogdanets, for thou wilt not persuade me that thou hast the wish to go to Bogdanets, and not to Yurand of Spyhov, for that chatterer."

"Speak not in that way, or I shall be angry. I look on her with gladness and do not deny it; that is a different vow