Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/693

 Rh "I will go to-morrow to the grave of Yadviga, our holy queen."

Yagenka sprang up from the bench in great fear,—

"Have you bad tidings?"

"I have none of any kind, for I could not at this time. But thou rememberest how, when I was sick from that splinter in my side,—that one, thou knowest, when ye went, thou and Zbyshko, for beavers,—I vowed that if God would return me health, I would go to her grave. All praised my desire then. And indeed! The Lord God has holy servants enough up there, but not every saint—and there are many—has such influence as our Lady, whom I fear to offend, because I am concerned about Zbyshko."

"True, as life!" said Yagenka. "But you have only just returned from a terrible journey."

"Never mind! I want to finish all, and then sit down at home quietly till Zbyshko comes back here. Only let our queen intercede for him before the Lord Jesus, and even ten Germans cannot beat him with his good armor. After the journey I shall build the castle with firmer hope."

"But you have strong bones."

"It is true that I am still active. I will say something else too. Let Yasko, who is impatient for a journey, go with me. I have experience, and shall be able to restrain him. And should any accident happen,—for the boy's hands are itching,—thou knowest that for me it is no new thing to fight on foot or on horseback, with sword or with axe."

"I know. No one could guard him better than you."

"But I think that it will not happen to him to fight; while the queen was alive, Cracow was filled with foreign knights, who wished to look at her beauty, but now they prefer Malborg, since there is more Malvoisie to be found in the kegs there."

"Yes, but there is a new queen now."

Matsko made a wry face and waved his hand.

"I have seen her! And will say no more—dost understand?"

After a while he added,

"In three or four weeks we shall be back here."

In fact, that happened. The old knight commanded Yasko to swear on his knightly honor and on the head of Saint George that he would not insist on a longer journey, and they rode away.