Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/76

52 "The king loves you also, gracious lady."

"Ei, not as her," replied, the princess, with a certain sadness; "for me one link of a chain, for her a whole chain; for me a fox skin, for her a sable. The king loves none of his relatives as he does Alexandra. There is no day when she goes away empty-handed."

Thus conversing they approached Cracow. The road, crowded beginning with Tynets, was still more crowded. They met landholders going to the city at the head of their men; some were in armor, others in summer garments and straw hats; some on horseback, others in wagons with their wives and daughters, who wished to see the long promised tournaments. In places the entire road was crowded with the wagons of merchants, who were not permitted to pass Cracow, and thus deprive the city of numerous toll dues. In those wagons were carried salt, wax, wheat, fish, oxhides, hemp, wood. Others leaving the city were laden with cloth, kegs of beer, and the most various merchandise of the city. Cracow was now quite visible; the gardens of the king, of lords and of townspeople surrounded the city on all sides; beyond them were the walls and the church towers. The nearer they came, the greater the movement, and at the gates it was difficult to pass amid the universal activity.

"This is the city! there is not in the world another such," said Matsko.

"It is always like a fair," said one of the choristers. "Is it long since you were here?"

"Long. And I wonder at Cracow as if I were looking at it for the first time, as we come now from wild countries."

"They say that Cracow has grown immensely through King Yagello."

"That is true. From the time that the Grand Prince of Lithuania ascended the throne, the vast regions of Lithuania and Rus have become open to the traffic of Cracow; because of this the city has increased day by day in population, in wealth, and in buildings; it has become one of the most important in the world."

"The cities of the Knights of the Cross are respectable too," said the weighty chorister again.

"If we could only get at them!" said Matsko. "There would be a respectable booty!"

But Povala was thinking of something else, namely, that young Zbyshko, who had offended only through stupid impulsiveness, was going into the jaws of the wolf as it were.