Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/73

Rh Matsko spoke of it lightly he did not look on the matter with seriousness. Meanwhile such bearing began to annoy the German. He looked once and a second time at Zbyshko, then at Matsko; at last he understood that they would not dismount, and paid no attention to him purposely. Then something, as it were steel, glittered in his eyes, and straightway he took leave. At the moment when he started Povala could not restrain himself, and said to him at parting,—

"Advance without fear, brave knight. This country is in peace and no one will attack you, unless some boy in a jest."

"Though manners are strange in this country, I have sought not your protection, but your society," answered Lichtenstein; "indeed I think that we shall meet again, both at this court and elsewhere."

In the last words sounded a hidden threat; therefore Povala answered seriously,—

"God grant." Then he inclined and turned away; afterward he shrugged his shoulders and said in an undertone, but still loud enough to be heard by those nearest him,—

"Dry bones! I could sweep thee from the saddle with the point of my lance, and hold thee in the air during three 'Our Fathers.'" Then he began to converse with the princess, whom he knew well. Anna Danuta asked what he was doing on the highway, and he informed her that he was riding at command of the king to maintain order in the neighborhood, where, because of the great number of guests coming from all parts to Cracow, a dispute might arise very easily. And as a proof he related that of which he had been himself a witness a little while earlier. Thinking, however, that there would be time enough to beg the intercession of the princess for Zbyshko when the need came, he did not attach too much significance to the event, not wishing to interrupt gladsomeness. In fact, the princess even laughed at Zbyshko for his haste to get peacock-plumes. Others, learning of the broken lance, admired the lord of Tachev because he had broken it so easily with one hand.

Povala, being a little boastful, was pleased in his heart that they were glorifying him, and at last began to tell of the deeds which had made him famous, especially in Burgundy at the court of Philip the Bold. Once in time of a tournament, after he had broken the spear of a knight of the Ardennes, he caught him by the waist, drew him from his saddle and hurled him up a spear's length in the air, though the

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