Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/688

 250 "To the road!" called out Zbyshko.

"To the road."

"God conduct thee! The Most Holy Mother!"

Hoofs resounded on the wooden drawbridge, one of the horses gave a prolonged neigh, others snorted loudly, and the party moved on.

But Yagenka, Matsko, Father Kaleb, Tolima, and Hlava, with his wife and the servants who remained in Spyhov, went out on the bridge and looked after them as they departed. Father Kaleb continued making the sign of the cross after them for a long time, till at last they disappeared beyond an alder thicket.

"Under that banner no evil fate will strike them," said he.

"True, but it is of good omen also that their horses gave tremendous snorts," added Matsko.

But neither did he remain long at Spyhov. In a fortnight the old knight finished arrangements with Hlava, who took the estate as a tenant. Matsko, at the head of a long row of wagons surrounded by armed attendants, set out with Yagenka toward Bogdanets. Father Kaleb and old Tolima looked at those wagons without entire satisfaction, for in truth Matsko had stripped Spyhov to some extent, but since Zbyshko had left all things to his management no one dared oppose him. He would have taken still more had he not been restrained by Yagenka, with whom he disputed, it is true, being astonished at her "woman's reasons," but still he obeyed her in almost everything.

They did not take Danusia's coffin, however, for as Spyhov was not sold, Zbyshko preferred that she should remain there with her fathers. They took a large stock of money and wealth of various sorts, captured for the greatest part from Germans in battles fought by Yurand. So Matsko, as he looked at the laden wagons covered with matting, was delighted in soul at the thought of how he would strengthen and arrange Bogdanets. His delight was poisoned, however, by the fear that Zbyshko might fall, but knowing the knightly skill of the young man he did not lose hope that he would return in safety, and he thought of this with rapture.

'Perhaps God wished," said he to himself, "that Zbyshko should obtain Spyhov first, then Mochydoly, and all that remained after the abbot. Let him only come back, I will build him a worthy castle in Bogdanets; and then we shall see!"