Complete Works of Henryk Sienkiewicz

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

  But the old experienced Macko, well knowing the people and their customs, did not interfere in the least, he did not even reach his hand to his sword. He only put his hands on his hips, and said quietly in a somewhat sarcastic voice:

  “How is it? Is this the kind of hospitality which the nobles in Brzozowa practice?”

  These words had the desired effect; their hands fell, and in a moment the old man let fall the sword with a clash, the young man dropped his pike, and they stood with their necks craned toward Macko, their faces still expressing hatred, but already amazed and ashamed of themselves.

  Macko smiled and said:

  “May the name of Christ be praised!”

  “Forever and ever.”

  “And Saint Jerzy.”

  “We serve him.”

  “I come to visit my neighbors with good will.”

  “With good will we greet you, the guest of his holy person.”

  Then old Wilk rushed toward Macko, and with his son, both of them pressed his right hand, they made him sit at a comfortable place at the table; in a second they threw another log on the fireplace, spread the table and put upon it a dish full of food, a jug of beer, a pitcher of mead, and began to eat and drink. Young Wilk glanced now and then at Macko, which, happily for the guest, contributed to lessen his hatred against him. But he served him, however, so diligently that he became pale from fatigue, because he was wounded and deprived of his wonted strength. The father and son burned with curiosity to know the object of Macko’s call. None, however, asked him why, but waited for him to speak.

  But Macko, as a man of manners, praised the meat, drink and hospitality. Only when he had filled himself well, he looked up and spoke with dignity:

  “People often quarrel. But neighborly peace above all.”

  “There is not a better thing than peace,” replied old Wilk, with equal composure.

  “It also often happens,” said Macko, “when one wants to undertake a long journey, he wants to make up and bid good-bye even to his adversaries.”

  “God reward you for your candid words.”

  “Not mere words, but deeds, for I actually came to wish you good-bye.”

  “From our soul we wish you might visit us daily.”

  “I wish I could feast you in Bogdaniec in a manner suitable to people who are acquainted with knightly honor. But I am in a hurry to go.”

  “Is it to war, or to some holy place?”

  “I should like to go to one of the two, but the place I am going to is worse, for I am going among the Knights of the Cross.”

  “Among the Knights of the Cross,” exclaimed both father and son.

  “Yes!” replied Macko. “And one who is their enemy is going to them. It is well for him to be reconciled with God and men, so that he may not forfeit, not only his life, but everlasting salvation.”

  “It is wonderful,” said old Wilk. “I have never yet seen any man who has not suffered from their wrongs and oppression.”

  “So it is in the whole fatherland,” added Macko. “Neither Lithuania before its conversion to Christianity, nor even the Tartars were such a burden to the Polish kingdom as those devilish monks.”

  “Quite true, but this you also know, they gathered and gathered. It is time now to finish with them.”

  Then the old man spat in his hands, and young Wilk added:

  “It cannot be otherwise now.”

  “It will come to pass, surely, but when? We cannot do it, it is the king’s affair. It may be soon or not … God only knows. But meanwhile I must go to them.”

  “Is it not with ransom for Zbyszko?”

  As his father mentioned Zbyszko’s name young Wilk’s face became pale with hatred.

  But Macko replied quietly:

  “May be with ransom but not for Zbyszko.”

  These words intensified the curiosity of both lords of Brzozowa. Old Wilk, who could no more contain himself, said:

  “Can you tell us, or not, the reason for your going there?”

  “I will tell you! I will!” he said, nodding assent, “but first let me tell you something else. Take notice then. After my departure Bogdaniec will be under God’s care…. When Zbyszko and myself were fighting under Prince Witold, the abbot, also Zych of Zgorzelice, looked somewhat after our small property. Now we shall miss even that little. It pains me terribly to think that my endeavor and labor will be in vain…. You can well form an idea how much this troubles me. They will entice away my people, plough up the boundaries; they will take away my herds. Even should God permit me to return, I shall find my property ruined…. There is only one remedy, only one help … good neighbor. For this reason I came to ask you as a neighbor that you would take Bogdaniec under your protection and see that no harm is done.”

  Listening to Macko’s request, old Wilk and his son exchanged looks; both of them were amazed beyond measure. They were silent for a moment, and neither could muster courage enough to reply. But Macko lifted another cup of mead to his mouth, drank it, then continued his conversation in as quiet and confiding a manner as though the two had been his most intimate friends for years.

  “I have told you candidly from whom most damage is expected. It is from no other quarter but from Cztan of Rogow. Although we were hostile to each other, I fear nothing from you because you are noble people who would face your adversaries, yet would not revenge yourselves by acting meanly. You are quite different. A knight is always a knight. But Cztan is a prestak (churl). From such a fellow anything might be expected, as you know. He is very bitter against me because I spoiled his game with Jagienka.”

  “Whom you reserve for your nephew,” burst out young Wilk.

  Macko looked at him and held him under his cold gaze for a moment, then he turned to the old man and said quietly:

  “You know, my nephew married a rich Mazovian proprietress and took considerable dower.” Silence more profound than before again reigned for a while. Both father and son gazed at Macko with their mouths wide open, for some time.

  Finally the old man said:

  “O! how is that? Tell us….”

  Macko appeared not to notice the question and continued:

  “This is the very reason why I must go, and why I also ask you, as worthy and upright neighbors, to take care of Bogdaniec when I go, and see to it that nobody damages my property. Have your eye especially upon Cztan and protect me against him.”

  During that time young Wilk, who was quick to understand, reflected that since Zbyszko had got married it would be better to be in friendship with Macko, because Jagienka confided in him, and did nothing without asking his advice. Thus new prospects suddenly presented themselves before his eyes. “It is not enough, we must not only not oppose Macko, but endeavor to be reconciled with him,” he said to himself. Therefore, although he was somewhat under the influence of drink, he quickly stretched his hand under the table and grasped his father’s knee and pressed it vigorously as a sign for his father to be careful in his speech, but said himself:

  “Ay! we do not fear Cztan! Let him only try. He wounded me with the platter, true, but I too have given him such a sound drubbing that his own mother could not recognize him. Fear nothing! Be at your ease. Not even one crow shall be lost at Bogdaniec!”

  “I see you are upright people. Do you promise me?”

  “We promise!” both exclaimed.

  “Upon your knightly honor?”

  “Upon knightly honor.”

  “And upon your escutcheon?”

  “Upon the escutcheon; yea, upon the cross too. So help us God!”

  Macko smiled with satisfaction, and said:

  “Well, this is now with you, and I am confident you will do it. If so, let me tell you something more. Zych, as you know, appointed me guardian of his children. I have, therefore, spoiled both Cztan’s incursions and your young man at Zgorzelice. But now when I arrive at Malborg, or, God knows where, what then will become of my guardianship?… It is true, that God is a father of the fatherle
ss; and woe to him who shall attempt to harm her; not only will I chop off his head with an axe, but also proclaim him an infamous scoundrel. Nevertheless I feel very sorry to part, sorry indeed. Then promise me I pray, that you will not only yourself not do any harm to Zych’s orphans, but see too that others do not harm them.”

  “We swear! We swear!”

  “Upon your knightly honor and your escutcheon?”

  “Upon knightly honor and escutcheon.”

  “Also upon the cross?”

  “Upon the cross too.”

  “God hears it. Amen,” concluded Macko, and he breathed deeply, because he was sure that they would not break such an oath. Even if they were provoked they would rather gnaw their fists with anger than perjure themselves.

  Then he began to take leave, but they insisted upon his remaining. He was obliged to drink and fraternize with old Wilk. But young Wilk, contrary to his custom to look for quarrels when drunk, this time limited his anger to threats against Cztan, and ran around Macko so assiduously as though he were to obtain Jagienka from Macko the following morning. Toward midnight he fainted from over-exertion, and after they revived him, he fell asleep like a log. Old Wilk followed the example of his son, so that when Macko left them they were lying under the table like corpses. Yet Macko himself had an extraordinary head and was not so much affected by the drink, but was cheerful. When he returned home he reflected with joy upon what he had accomplished.

  “Well!” he said to himself, “Bogdaniec is safe and so is Zgorzelice. They will be raging when they hear of Jagienka’s departure. But she and my property are safe. The Lord Jesus has endowed men with skill, so that when one cannot make use of his fist, he uses his mind. The old man will surely challenge me when I return home, but it is not worth while to think about it…. Would to God that I might entrap the Knights of the Cross in such manner…. But it will be a difficult task with them. With us, even when one has an affair with a ‘dog brother,’ nevertheless if he takes an oath on his knightly honor and escutcheon he will keep it. But with them an oath has no value; it is like spitting upon the water. But may the mother of Jesus assist me, that I may be as serviceable to Zbyszko as I have been to Zychow’s children, and Bogdaniec….”

  Here, it crossed his mind, that perhaps it might be advisable not to take Jagienka, because the two Wilks would care for her as the apple of their eye. But the next moment he rejected that plan. “The Wilks might care for her, true, but Cztan will persist in his attempts, and God knows who will prevail. But it is a sure thing that there will be a succession of fights and outrages from which Zgorzelice, Zych’s orphans, and even the girl might suffer. It will be an easy matter for Wilk to guard Bogdaniec. But by all means it will be better for the girl to be as far away from the two murderers as possible, and at the same time to be as near the rich abbot as possible. Macko firmly believed that Danusia would never be rescued from the Knights of the Cross, alive. And the hope that Zbyszko would return home as a widower and most likely take to Jagienka, never left him.”

  “Ah! Mighty God!” he said to himself. “In such a case he will be the owner of Spychow, then he will get Jagienka and Moczydoly, and in addition to it he will acquire that which the abbot will bequeath. I would not even spare him wax for candles.”

  Occupied with such thoughts, the road from Brzozowa seemed to be shortened, yet he arrived at Bogdaniec after nightfall, and was surprised to see his windows brightly illuminated. The servants, too, were awake, for he had scarcely entered the courtyard when the stable boy came rushing to him.

  “Are there some guests?” asked Macko, dismounting.

  “There is the young gentleman of Zgorzelice with the Bohemian,” replied the stable boy.

  This information astonished Macko, for Jagienka had promised to arrive next day, very early, when they were to start immediately. Then, why had Jasko come and that so late? It struck the old knight that something must have occurred at Zgorzelice, and he entered his house with a certain amount of anxiety. But within he found a bright fire burning in the large clay oven in the centre of the room. And upon the table were two iron cradles and two torches in them, by which light Macko observed Jasko, the Bohemian, Hlawa, and another young servant with a face as red as an apple.

  “How are you, Jasko? and what is the matter with Jagienka?” asked the old nobleman.

  “Jagienka ordered me to tell you,” he said, whilst kissing Macko’s hand, “that she has reconsidered the matter and she prefers to stay at home.”

  “For God’s sake! What do you say? How? What has happened to her?”

  But the boy looked at him with his beautiful blue eyes and smiled.

  “What are you prating about?”

  But at this moment, the Bohemian and the other boy also burst out laughing.

  “You see!” exclaimed the disguised boy. “Who could recognize me. You even have failed to recognize me!”

  Then Macko looked at the lovely figure carefully and exclaimed:

  “In the name of the Father and Son! It is a true carnival! You also here, croaking thing. Why?”

  “Yes! Why? Those who are on the road have no time to lose.”

  “Is it not to-morrow at dawn, that you were to leave?”

  “Certainly! to-morrow at dawn, so that all may know. To-morrow they will think at Zgorzelice that I am your guest, and they will not notice it till the day after to-morrow. Sieciechowa and Jasiek know it. But Jasko promised, upon knightly honor, that he will tell only then, when the people begin to be restless. How is it you did not recognize me?”

  Now it was Macko’s turn to laugh.

  “Let me have a good look at you; you are an excessively fine boy!… and singularly so. From such one might expect to raise a good breed…. I justly declare, if this fellow were, (pointing at himself) were not old, — well! But, even thus I tell you, keep off, girl, from creeping under my eyes, stand back!…”

  And he began to threaten her with his finger, but looked at her with much pleasure. Because such a girl he never saw before. Upon her head she had a silken red net, and a yellow jacket upon her body and the breeches ample round her hips and tighter above them, of which one little leg was of the same color as the cap (net) upon her head, the other had longwise stripes, with a richly covered little sword at her side, smiling and bright like the dawn. Her face was so exquisite that he could not take his eyes off her.

  “My God!” said the overjoyed Macko. “She looks like some marvelous young lady or like a flower, or something else!”

  “And this one here — I am sure it must also be somebody in disguise?”

  “This is Sieciechowa,” answered Jagienka. “It would be improper for me to be alone among you. How could I? Therefore I have taken Anulka with me so that two courageous women will be of help and service. Her also, nobody can recognize.”

  “There, old woman, you have a marriage feast. One is bad enough, now there will be two.”

  “Don’t tease.”

  “I am not teasing, but everybody will recognize you and her, in the daytime.”

  “Pray, and why?”

  “In order to go on their knees to you and to her also.”

  “O, give us peace!…”

  “You shall have it, I am not in a hurry. But will Cztan or Wilk let you have peace? God knows. Do you know, birdie, where I have just been? Why, at Brzozowa.”

  “For God’s sake! What are you saying?”

  “It is true as truth itself that the Wilks protect Bogdaniec and Zgorzelice against Cztan. Well, it is an easy matter to challenge an enemy and fight him. But to make your enemy into a protector of your own property is a very difficult task.”

  Then Macko related his adventures with the Wilks, how they had become reconciled to each other. How he had got advantage over them; to this she listened with the greatest wonder, and when he concluded she said:

  “The Lord Jesus did not stint you in craftiness, and I observe that you will always be successful in your undertakings.”

 
; But Macko shook his head, as though he felt sorry.

  “Ay, daughter! If that were so, you would have long ago become the lady of Bogdaniec!”

  Upon hearing that, Jagienka looked at him with her lovely blue eyes for a moment, then she approached him, and kissed his hand.

  “Why do you kiss me?” inquired the old knight.

  “Nothing…. I only wish to bid you goodnight, because it is getting late and to-morrow we must get up early for our journey.”

  She then embraced Sieciechowa and left, and Macko led the Bohemian to his room, where they stretched themselves upon aurochs’ skins and both fell sound asleep.

  CHAPTER III.

  After the destruction, conflagration and slaughter which the Knights of the Cross had committed in 1331, at Sieradz, Casimir the Great rebuilt the razed town. The place, however, was not exceedingly splendid and could not keep pace with the other towns of the realm. But Jagienka, who hitherto had spent her time among the people of Zgorzelice and Krzesnia, was beside herself with admiration and astonishment at the sight of the houses, towers, town hall, and especially the churches; the wooden structure at Krzesnia could not be compared with them. At first she lost her wonted resolution, so much so that she dared not talk aloud, and only inquired of Macko in a whisper about those wonderful things which dazzled her eyes. But when the old knight assured her that there was as much difference between Sieradz and Krakow as there is between a firebrand and the sun, she would not believe her own ears, because it appeared to her an impossibility that another city could be found in the world which could be equal to Sieradz.

  They were received in the cloister by the same shriveled old prior, who still remembered in his childhood the butchery by the Knights of the Cross, and who had previously received Zbyszko. The news of the abbot occasioned them sorrow and trouble; he lived in the cloister for a long while, but he left a fortnight before their arrival to visit his friend, the bishop of Plock. He was constantly ill. He was generally conscious in the morning; but toward the evening he lost his head, he stormed and he asked to put on a coat of mail, and challenged Prince John of Racibor. The clergy were obliged to apply force to keep him in bed; that was not accomplished without considerable trouble and even much risk. About a fortnight ago he had entirely lost his reason, and in spite of his serious illness, he had given orders to be taken to Plock immediately.