Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/533

 forest. But now tell me truly: Dost thou wish to search for that girl?"

"That is no girl; she is my wife."

Then silence came, for Matsko knew well that there was no reply to that answer. If Danusia had been only Yurand's daughter he would, beyond doubt, have asked Zbyshko to think no more of her; but in view of the sacredness of marriage, it was simply a duty to search for her, and Matsko would not have put such a question had it not been that he had seen neither the betrothal nor the wedding, and thought always of Yurand's daughter as a maiden.

"Ah!" said he, after a while, "all that I could inquire of thee for two days past I have inquired, and thou hast said that thou knowest nothing."

"I have said so because I know nothing, save this, that God's anger is on me."

Hlava, straightening up from the bearskin, rose, and turning his ear, began to listen carefully and with curiosity.

"While sleep does not take sense from me," said Matsko, "talk on. What hast thou seen, what hast thou done, what hast thou accomplished in Malborg?"

Zbyshko put back the hair which, uncut in front for a long time, reached down over his brow, sat a while in silence, and then began,—

"Ah, if God would only let me know as much of my Danusia as I know of Malborg! You ask what I saw there? I saw the measureless strength of the Order, supported by all kings and all nations, and which is such that I know not whether anything on earth has power to conquer it. I saw a castle which no one save perhaps the Roman Cæsar can equal. I saw treasures beyond calculation, I saw arms, I saw armored monks, knights, and soldiers as numerous as ant-swarms, and relics as many as the Holy Father in Rome has. I tell you that the soul just grew benumbed in me, for I thought thus: how is any one to attack them; who can overcome them; who can stand against them; who are the people who will not be broken by the strength of those Knights of the Order?"

"We! perdition take their mother!" cried Hlava, unable to restrain himself.

Zbyshko's words seemed strange also to Matsko, and though he wished to learn all about the adventures of his nephew, he interrupted him.