Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/579

 Rh "It is this to me, that I can swear on knightly honor only to knights."

"Then look!"

And Matsko, pushing aside his coat, showed the belt of a knight above his hips.

At this Arnold was greatly astonished, and inquired only after a while,—

"How is this? And still ye plunder people through the forest, and help pagans against Christians."

"Thou liest!" exclaimed Matsko.

And the conversation began thus, unfriendly, haughty, at moments like fighting. But when Matsko shouted angrily that it was the Order alone which prevented the baptism of Lithuania, and when he brought forward all the arguments, Arnold was astonished again, and stopped talking, for the truth became so evident that it was impossible not to see it, or to deny it. The German was struck specially by these words from Matsko, who made the sign of the cross as he uttered them,—

"Who knows whom ye serve really,—if not all, then, some of you?" and he was struck because there was in the Order itself a suspicion that certain comturs rendered honor to Satan. No action was brought against them, lest infamy might result to all, but Arnold knew well that those reports were whispered among the Brothers, and that stories of that kind were current. Meanwhile Matsko, knowing Siegfried's strange deeds from what Sanderus had told, alarmed the simple-minded giant Arnold thoroughly.

"And that Siegfried with whom thou wert marching to the war," said he. "Is he serving God and Christ? Hast thou never heard how he talks with evil spirits, how he whispers to them and laughs or gnashes his teeth in their company?"

"It is true!" muttered Arnold.

But Zbyshko, to whose heart sorrow and anger flowed in a new current, shouted suddenly,—

"And thou art talking of knightly honor! Shame on thee, for thou hast helped a hangman and a hell-dweller! Shame on thee, for thou hast looked calmly at the torture of an unprotected woman, a knight's daughter, and perhaps thou hast tortured her thyself. Shame on thee!"

Arnold stared and said, making the sign of the cross,—

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit! How is this? Do you speak of that possessed girl in whose head twenty-seven devils are living? I—?"