Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/492

54 his lips. Immediately an invincible sleep seized the man, from which he was to wake on the third day only.

Meanwhile they held a prompt and decisive council.

"I will say at once," called out Yagenka, "that it is not for us to go now to Schytno, but to Spyhov, so as to leave him in a safe place among his own people, and leave him surrounded by every care."

"Look, how thou art ordering this," answered Matsko. "It is nceessary [sic] to send him to Spyhov, but not indispensable that we all go; one wagon can go with him."

"I do not order, but I think that we might learn much from him about Zbyshko and Danusia."

"In what language wilt thou talk with him, since his tongue is gone?"

"But who has shown you that he has no tongue, except himself? You see that without talking we have learned everything that was needed, and how will it be when we are accustomed to the indications of his head and hands? Ask him, for example, whether Zbyshko has returned from Malborg to Schytno, then be sure he will either affirm with his head, or deny; and it will be the same with other things."

"True!" said Hlava.

"I do not deny that this is true," said Matsko, "and I had the same thought myself; but with me judgment is first, and talk afterward."

Then he gave orders to turn the wagons toward the Mazovian boundary. On the way Yagenka approached time after time the wagon in which Yurand lay, fearing that he might have died while sleeping.

"I did not recognize him," said Matsko, "but that is no wonder. He was as strong as a wild bull! the Mazovians said that he was the only man among them who was able to meet Zavisha of Garbov—but now he is a real skeleton."

"There were reports," said Hlava, "that they were killing him with torture, but some people could not believe that Christians would act so with a belted knight, one having, moreover, Saint George for his patron."

"It was God's will that Zbyshko avenged him even in part. But see the difference between us and them. It is true that of four dog brothers three have fallen; but they fell in battle, and no man has cut the tongue out of one of them in captivity, or taken his eye out."