Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/607

 Rh saddle, which he had placed under the tree, put the halter around his neck.

"Push away the saddle!—It is done! Aa!"

The saddle pushed by his foot rolled some steps away, and the body of the ill-fated knight hung heavily.

For a flash it seemed to him that he heard some hoarse, repressed roar, that the ghastly vampire rushed at him, shook him, and tore his breast with its teeth, so as to bite the heart in him. But afterward his quenching eyes saw something else: Death dissolved into a kind of white cloud there before him, pushed up to him slowly, embraced, surrounded, enveloped him, and finally covered everything with a ghastly, impenetrable curtain.

At that moment the storm grew wild with immeasurable fury. A thunderbolt struck with an awful explosion in the middle of the road, as if the earth had sunk in its foundations. The whole forest bent under a whirlwind. The roar, the whistle, the noise, the crashing of tree-trunks, and the crack of breaking limbs filled the depth of the forest. Torrents of rain, driven by wind, hid the light, and only during brief bloody lightning-flashes was the corpse of Siegfried visible, whirling wildly above the road.

Next morning a rather numerous escort advanced along that same road. At the head of it rode Yagenka with Anulka and Hlava; behind them were wagons conducted by four attendants armed with swords and crossbows. Each of the drivers had at his side also a spear and an axe, not counting forks and other weapons useful on journeys. These were needful both in defence against wild beasts and robber bands, which raged always along the boundaries of the Order. Against these it was that Yagello complained bitterly to the Grand Master, both in letters and personally in the meetings at Ratsiondzek. But having trained men and defensive weapons, one might be free of fear. The escort advanced, therefore, with self-confidence and boldly.

After the storm came a marvellous day, fresh, calm, and so clear that where there was no shade the eyes of the travellers blinked from excess of light. Not a leaf moved on the trees, and from each leaf hung great drops of rain which glittered with rainbow colors in the sun. Amid the needle-like leaves of the pine, these drops glistened like great diamonds. The downpour of rain had formed on the