Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/65

Rh "I will go anyhow. What is Valger to me?"

At this Danusia began to call, half in tears: "Zbyshko! Zbyshko!" but he had ridden forward and was advancing more quickly, confident that, even should he find the real Valger, he would pierce him with his lance.

"He seems a giant," said Matsko, who had a quick eye, "because he stands on the hilltop. He is large indeed, but an ordinary man nothing more. I will go, and not let a quarrel spring up between him and Zbyshko."

Zbyshko, advancing at a trot, was thinking whether to lower his lance at once, or only see, when near by, how that man on the eminence looked. He decided to see first, and soon convinced himself that that thought was better, for as he approached the unknown lost his uncommon proportions. The man rode a gigantic steed, larger than Zbyshko's stallion, and was immense himself, but he did not surpass human measure. Besides, he was without armor; he wore a velvet, bell-shaped cap and a white linen mantle, which kept away dust; from under the mantle peeped forth green apparel. Standing on the hilltop the knight's head was raised and he was praying. Evidently he had halted to finish his evening prayer.

"Ei, what kind of a Valger is he?" thought the young man.

He had ridden up so near that he could reach the unknown with a lance. The stranger, seeing before him a splendidly armed knight, smiled kindly, and said,—

"Praised be Jesus Christ."

"For the ages of ages."

"ls not that the court of the Princess of Mazovia down there?"

"It is."

"Then ye are coming from Tynets?"

But there was no answer to that question, for Zbyshko was so astonished that he did not even hear it. He stood for a moment as if turned to stone, not believing his own eyes. About twenty-five rods beyond the unknown man he saw between ten and twenty mounted warriors, at the head of whom, but considerably in advance, rode a knight in complete shining armor and a white mantle, on which was a black cross; on his head was a steel helmet with a splendid peacock-plume on the crest of it.

"A Knight of the Cross!" muttered Zbyshko.

And he thought that his prayer had been heard; that