Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/54

30 of the throng, to find an inn in Cracow, found lodgings in Tynets. For these reasons the Abbas centum villarum (abbot of a hundred villas) might greet the princess with a retinue still more numerous than common.

He was a man of lofty stature, with an austere and wise face, with a head shaven on the crown, but lower down, above the ears, encircled by a garland of hair growing gray. On his forehead was a scar from a wound received evidently during years of young knighthood; eyes penetrating, haughty, looked out from beneath dark brows. He was dressed in a habit like other monks, but over it was a black mantle lined with purple, and on his neck a gold chain from the end of which depended a cross, also gold and inlaid with precious stones, the emblem of his dignity as abbot. His whole bearing indicated a man haughty, accustomed to command, and self-confident. But he greeted the princess cordially, and even with humility, for he remembered that her husband came of that stock of Mazovian princes from which King Vladislav and Kazimir the Great were descended on the female side, and at present the reigning queen was the mistress of one of the broadest realms on earth. He passed the threshold of the gate, therefore, inclined his head low, and, when he had made the sign of the cross over Anna Danuta and the whole court, with a golden tube which he held in the fingers of his right hand, he said,—

"Be greeted, gracious lady, at the poor threshold of monks. May Saint Benedict of Murcia, Saint Maurice, Saint Boniface, and Saint Benedict of Anagni, and also Saint John of Ptolomeus, our patrons who dwell in eternal light, endow thee with health and with happiness; may they bless thee seven times daily through every period of thy life."

"They would have to be deaf not to hear the words of so great an abbot," said the princess, courteously; "all the more since we have come here to mass, during which we shall place ourselves under their protection."

Then she extended her hand to him, which he, kneeling with courtliness on one knee, kissed in knightly fashion; after that they passed in through the gateway without delay. Those inside were waiting evidently for mass to begin, for at that moment the bells great and small were rung, trumpeters sounded shrill trumpets at the church door, in honor of the princess, while others beat enormous kettle-drums made of ruddy copper and covered with rawhide; these gave forth