Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/719

 Rh knights, said: "Of course, Zbyshko!" and only afterward did the hairy Stan of Rogov and other local strong men, who in knightly training were far behind the young heir of Bogdanets, come into consideration.

Great wealth equally with his fame had won for Zbyshko honor from his neighbors; for he had received with Yagenka Mochydoly and the great property of the abbot. That was not his merit, but earlier he had Spyhov together with immense treasures accumulated by Yurand, and besides people whispered to one another that the booty alone won and taken by the knights of Bogdanets in arms, horses, clothing, and jewels, would suffice to buy three or four good villages. Men saw therefore in this a certain special favor of God toward the race of the Grady with the escutcheon "The Dull Horshshoe [sic]," which till recent times had been so reduced that besides empty Bogdanets it had nothing—now it had increased beyond all others in that region. "Moreover, there had remained in Bogdanets after the fire only that poor, bent, decayed house," said old people, "and from lack of laboring hands the owners of the property had been forced to mortgage it to their relative—but now they are building a castle!" Astonishment was great, but since it was accompanied by the general instinctive feeling that the whole nation was advancing with irresistible impulse toward some immense acquisition, and since by the will of God such was to be the future order, there was no malicious envy; on the contrary, the region about boasted and was proud of those knights of Bogdanets. They served as a living proof of what a noble might do if he had a strong arm and a manful heart, with knightly eagerness for adventure. More than one man, therefore, at sight of them felt that for him the place was too narrow among his household goods, and within his native limits, and that beyond the boundary there was a hostile power, great wealth and broad lands, which he might win with immense gain to himself and the kingdom. That excess of strength, which was felt by families, extended over the whole nation, so that it was like a seething liquid which must boil over in a caldron. The wise lords at Cracow, and the king, who loved peace, might restrain that strength for a season, and defer war with the hereditary enemy, but no human power could extinguish it, or even restrain that impetus with which the general spirit of the people was advancing toward greatness.