Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/79

Rh "Well, taking everything into account, I think that they will cut off thy head."

"Do you think so?" asked Zbyshko, with a drowsy voice. And turning to the wall he fell asleep sweetly, for he was wearied by the road. Next day the two owners of Bogdanets together with Povala went to early mass in the Cathedral, through piety and to see the guests who had assembled at the castle. Indeed Povala had met a multitude of acquaintances on the road, and among them many knights famous at home and abroad; on these young Zbyshko looked with admiration, promising himself in spirit that if the affair with Lichtenstein should leave him unharmed, he would strive to equal them in bravery and every virtue. One of those knights, Toporchyk, a relative of the castellan of Cracow told him about the return from Rome of Voitseh Yastrembets, a scholastic, who had gone with a letter from the king to Pope Boniface IX., inviting him to Cracow. Boniface accepted the invitation, and though he expressed doubt as to whether he could come in person, he empowered his ambassador to hold in his name the infant at the font, and begged at the same time, as a proof of his love for both kingdoms, to name the child Bonifacius or Bonifacia.

They spoke also of the approaching arrival of Sigismond of Hungary, and expected it surely; for Sigismond, whether invited or not, went always to places where there was a chance of feasts, visits, and tournaments, in which he took part with delight, desiring to be renowned universally as a ruler, a singer, and one of the first of knights. Povala, Zavisha of Garbov, Dobko of Olesnitsa, Nashan, and other men of similar measure remembered with a smile how, during former visits of Sigismond, King Vladislav had begged them in secret not to push too hard in the tournament, and to spare the "Hungarian guest," whose vanity, known throughout the world, was so great that in case of failure it brought tears from his eyes. But the greatest attention among the knighthood was roused by the affair of Vitold. Wonders were related of the splendor of that cradle of pure silver, which princes and boyars of Lithuania had brought from Vitold and his wife Anna. Before divine service groups of people were formed as is usual; these related news to each other. In one of those groups Matsko, when he heard of the cradle, described the richness of the gift, but still more Vitold's intended immense expedition against the