Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/498

60 "The comtur wrote the same to the Grand Master: that that girl was not in prison, but under guard; that they had taken her from robbers, who swore that she was Yurand's daughter, who had been transformed."

"And did the Master believe that?"

"He did not know himself whether he was to believe or not, but Ulrich flashed up with still greater anger, and obtained from his brother this, that he should send an official of the Order with Zbyshko to Schytno, which happened. When they arrived at Schytno they did not find the old comtur, Siegfried, for he had gone to the war against Vitold, toward the eastern castles. They found an assistant voyt, who commanded to open all the cellars and dungeons. They searched and searched, but found nothing. They took people also to testify. One told Zbyshko that much might be learned from the chaplain, for he could understand the dumb executioner; but the old comtur had taken the executioner with him, and the chaplain had gone to Krolevets to some church congress. They meet there often, and send complaints against the Knights of the Cross to the Pope, for a hard life have the poor priests in the lands of the Order."

"But it is a wonder to me that they did not find Yurand," remarked Matsko.

"It is evident that the old comtur liberated him earlier. There was more malice in this liberation than if they had simply taken life from him; they wanted that he should suffer before death as much, nay more, than a man of his position could go through, blind, speechless, and without his right hand. Fear God! Neither able to go home, nor to ask about the road, nor to beg for bread. They supposed that he would die under a fence, sometime, from hunger, or that he would be drowned in water. What did they leave to him? Nothing but the memory of what he had been, and the experience of wretchedness. And besides, it was torture upon torture! He might have been sitting somewhere near a church, or at the roadside, and Zbyshko might have passed by and not recognized him. Perhaps even he heard Zbyshko's voice and could not call to him. Hei! I cannot talk from tears! God performed a miracle that you met him, therefore I think that He will perform one still greater, though my unworthy and sinful lips are those which beg for it."

"And what more did Zbyshko say? Whither did he go?"