Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/639

 Rh The young man's heart was rent again at sight of Princess Anna, so he knelt before her, and seizing her knees remained in silence. She bent over him and pressed his temples, dropping tear after tear on his bright head, exactly as a mother while weeping over a son's misfortunes.

And to the great astonishment of guests and courtiers she wept long, repeating,—

"O Jesus! O Jesus the Compassionate!" Then she raised Zbyshko and said: "I weep for my Danusia, and I weep over thee. But God has so disposed that thy toils were fruitless, and now our tears are fruitless also. But do thou tell me of her, and of her death, for though I were to listen till midnight I should not hear enough."

And she took him to one side, as the lord of Tachev had done previously. Those of the guests who did not know Zbyshko inquired concerning his adventures, and for some time all conversed only of him, and Danusia, and Yurand. The envoys of the Order asked also Friedrich von Wenden, the comtur of Torun, sent to meet the king, and Johann von Schönfeld, the comtur of Osterode. The latter, a German, but from Silesia, knowing Polish well, inquired easily what the question was, and when he had heard it from the lips of Yasko of Zabierz, an attendant of Prince Yanush, he said,—

"Danveld and De Löwe were accused before the Grand Master of practising the black art."

Then observing quickly that even the statement of such things might cast a shadow on the whole Order, like that which had fallen on the Templars, he added immediately,—

"That was a statement of gossips, but it was not true, for there are no men of that kind in our order." But Povala, who was standing near, answered,—

"They who prevented the baptism of Lithuania may oppose the Cross."

"We wear the Cross on our mantles," answered Schönfeld, haughtily.

"But men should wear it in their hearts," said Povala.

That moment the trumpets sounded still louder, and Yagello appeared with the archbishop of Gniezen, the bishop of Cracow, the bishop of Plotsk, the castellan of Cracow, and other dignitaries and courtiers, among whom were Zyndram and the young Prince Yamont, an attendant of Yagello. The king had changed little since Zbyshko had seen him first. He had the same quickly glancing eyes, on