Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/91

Rh Tsarushek, sitting in the doorway on a stool, began to imitate the singing of a nightingale, which evidently delighted the king. After him another jester passed around the table with the servants who were carrying food; he stood behind the chairs without being noticed, and imitated the buzzing of a bee so accurately that this man and that laid down his spoon and defended his head with his hand. At sight of this, others burst into laughter.

Zbyshko served the princess and Danusia diligently, but when Lichtenstein in his turn began to slap his head, which was growing bald, he forgot his danger again and laughed till the tears came. A young Lithuanian prince, son of the viceroy of Smolensk, helped him in this so sincerely that he dropped food from the tray.

The Knight of the Cross, noting his error at last, reached to his hanging pocket, and turning to bishop Kropidlo, said something to him in German which the bishop repeated immediately in Polish.

"The noble lord declares," said he, turning to the jester, "that thou wilt receive two coins; but buzz not too near, for bees are driven out and drones are killed."

The jester pocketed the two coins which the knight had given him, and using the freedom accorded to jesters at all courts, he answered,—

"There is much honey in the land of Dobryn; that is why the drones have settled on it. Kill them, O King Vladislav!"

"Ha! here is a coin from me too, for thou hast answered well," said Kropidlo; "but remember that when a ladder falls the bee-keeper breaks his neck. Those Malborg drones which have settled on Dobryn have stings, and it is dangerous to climb to their nests."

"Oh!" cried Zyndram of Mashkov, the sword-bearer of Cracow, "we can smoke them out."

"With what?"

"With powder."

"Or cut their nests with an axe!" said the gigantic Pashko Zlodye.

Zbyshko's heart rose, for he thought that such words heralded war. But Kuno Lichtenstein understood the words too, for having lived long in Torun and in Helmno he had learned Polish speech, and he failed to use it only through pride. But now, roused by Zyndram's words, he fixed his gray eyes on him and answered,—