Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/53

Rh they lived in vileness, for no priest would give them Christian marriage. In Vislitsa lived Vislav the Beautiful, of the race of King Popiel. Once this Vislav, during the absence of Valger, fell to ravaging the lands of Tynets. Valger conquered him and brought him to Tynets, not remembering that every woman who looked on Vislav was ready straightway to desert father, mother, and husband, so be it that she could satisfy her desire. And so it happened with Helgunda. She invented such bonds for Valger that though he was a giant, though he tore up oak trees, he was not able to break the bonds, and she delivered him to Vislav, who took him to Vislitsa. But Vislav had a sister named Rynga. When she heard Valger singing in an underground dungeon she fell in love with him straightway, and freed him from under the earth. When he had slain Helguuda and Vislav with a sword, Valger left their bodies to the crows and returned to Tynets with Rynga."

"Did not he do what was right?" inquired the princess.

"If he had received baptism, and given Tynets to the Benedictines," answered Hidulf, "perhaps God would have remitted his sins, but since he did not do that the earth swallowed him."

"Were the Benedictines in this kingdom at that time?"

"The Benedictines were not in this kingdom, for pagans alone lived here then."

"In such case how could he receive baptism, or give away Tynets?"

"He could not, and for that very reason he is condemned to endless torments in hell," replied the monk, with dignity.

"Surely he speaks the truth!" said a number of voices.

They were now approaching the main gate of the monastery, in which the abbot at the head of a numerous retinue of monks and nobles was waiting for the princess. There were always many laymen, "messengers, advocates, procurators," and monastery officials there. Many landholders, even great nobles, held countless cloister lands by feudal tenure, rather exceptional in Poland, and these, as vassals, were glad to appear at the court of the "suzerain," where near the high altar it was easy to receive a grant, an abatement, and every kind of benefaction, dependent frequently on some small service, clever word, or a moment of good-humor in the mighty abbot. While preparing for solemnities in the capital many also of such vassals assembled from distant places; those of them for whom it was difficult,