Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/672

 234 for my sickness than your discourse no physician could think out."

Zbyshko, also very curious, put the wine on the table himself, and with it goblets; all sat around the table then, and Zyndram spoke as follows,—

"This fortress is nothing; for what the hand of man has reared, the hand of man can pull down. Ye know what keeps brick together? Mortar! But do ye know what keeps people together? Love."

"By God's wounds! honey is flowing from your lips!" exclaimed Matsko.

Zyndram, rejoiced in his heart by that praise, continued,—

"Of the people in this region one has in bonds with us a brother, another a son, another a relative, another a son-in-law, or some one else. The comturs of the boundary command their men to go out and rob us; hence many of them are slain, and many of them we capture. But since people here have learned already of the exchange of prisoners between the king and the Grand Master, they came to us from early morning to give the names of captives, which names our scribe entered down. First of all came a cooper, a rich citizen, a German, who has a house in Malborg, when he said at last: 'If I could serve your king and kingdom in any way, I would give my life and not merely my property.' I sent him away, thinking the man a Judas. But after him came a parish priest from near Oliva, to ask about his brother, and he spoke as follows: 'Is it true, lord, that ye are going to war with our Prussian masters? If ye are, be it known to you that the whole people here when they say "Thy kingdom come," are thinking of your sovereign.' Afterward appeared two nobles for their sons: these nobles live near Shtum on feudal lands; there were merchants from Dantzig, there were artisans, there was a bell-founder from Kvidjyn, there was a crowd of various people, and they all said the same thing."

Here Zyndram stopped and looked around to see that no men were listening behind the doors; on returning he finished in a somewhat lower voice,—

"I inquired long about everything. Throughout all Prussia the Knights of the Cross are hated by priests, nobles, citizens, and land-tillers. And not only are they hated by people who use our speech, or the Prussian, but even by Germans. The man who is forced to serve, serves; but the