Chapter 30 Chapter Twenty Eight

Father Vishoniak was even worried that Jurand would still be in a trance when he woke up again, and it would take a long time to regain consciousness.He promised the princess and Zbyszko that he would inform them as soon as the old knight could speak.As soon as they were gone, he went to bed himself.As a matter of fact, Jurand was completely conscious when he woke up before noon on the second day of Christmas.Both the Duchess and Zbyszko were present at the time.Jurand sat on the bed, looked around, recognized her, and said: "Dear madam... tell me, am I in Tsychanov?" "You slept through Christmas," replied Madame.

"Snow drowned me. Who saved me?" "The knight: Zbyszko of Bogdaniec. You remember him in Krakow..." Jurand looked at the young man for a moment with his good eye, and said: "I remember...but where is Danusia?" "Did she not come with you?" asked the princess anxiously. "How can she come with me, I haven't been to her yet!" Zbyszko and the princess looked at each other, thinking that he was still feverish and talking faintly.Then the lady said: "Please wake up! Is the girl not with you?" "Girl? With me?" Jurand asked in surprise.

"Because everyone who came with you is dead, but her body is not among them." "Why did you leave her in Spyhof?" Jurand asked again, already in a panicked tone: "In Spiehof? Why, she is with your highness, not with me!" "But you sent a letter to the forest palace to pick her up." "By the Father and the Son!" replied Jurand, "I never sent a letter for her," The Duchess' face suddenly turned pale: "What's the matter?" she said. "Are you sane when you say that?" "God be merciful, where is the child?" cried Jurand, jumping up.

Upon hearing this, the Abbe Vishoniak immediately left the room, while the princess continued: "Listen: an armed squire has brought your letter to the forest palace to fetch Danusia. It says that there is a fire in your place, and a wooden beam has fallen on you... that your eyes Half-blind, and saying you want a child. . . . They took Danusia away . . . " "I am so sorry!" cried Jurand. "By God, Spychoff didn't start a fire. I didn't send for her either!" At that moment Father Vishoniak brought the letter, handed it to Jurand, and asked: "Isn't this from your priest?"

"I have no idea." "What about the seal?" "The seal is mine." "What did the letter say?" Father Vishoniak repeated his conviction, and Jurand, pulling his hair while listening, finally said: "The letter is a forgery! . . . The seal is a forgery! . . . Killed my child, I'm going to kill her!" "Who are they?" "Teutons!" "My God! Go and tell the Duke! Tell him to send a messenger to the Grand Master!" cried the Duchess. "Merciful Jesus, save her, save her!" she screamed all the way out of the room.

Jurand jumped out of bed and hastily put his clothes on his bulky body.Zbyszko sat there as if out of his wits, and it was some time before his clenched teeth chattered with anger. "How do you know she was taken by the Teutons?" asked the Abbe Vishoniak. "By the Passion of our God, I swear!" "Wait! . . . Maybe so. They came to the Forest Palace to accuse you." "They want revenge on you..." "So they took her away," cried Zbyszko suddenly.He hurried out of the room to the stables, and ordered the horses to be saddled and the carriages harnessed, not quite knowing why he did it.He only added that Danusia must be rescued—immediately—and to Prussia—to take her from the enemy, or die.

He returned to his room and told Jurand that the weapons and horses would be ready in a moment.He believed that Jurand would accompany him.He was burning with anger, pain, sorrow—but he was not yet disappointed; he felt that if he joined forces with this formidable knight of Spychoff, he could do anything—with them The strength of the two is enough to attack the entire army of the Teutons. In the room, besides Jurand, the Abbe Visognac, and the Duchess, he met the Duke, de Rausch, and the old knight of Drugolas, whom the Duke had summoned after hearing the incident. He came to consult because he was experienced and knew a lot about the Teutonic situation. He had been a captive there for many years.

"Caution must be exercised, lest, in a moment of blind rage, commit an offense that ruins the maiden," said the knight of Drugolas. "A complaint must be made to the head of the regiment immediately. If His Highness wants me to send a letter, I will ride there immediately." "I will write and you will send it," said the prince. "We must not lose this child, God and the Holy Cross help me! The Grand Master is afraid of war with the King of Poland, he is anxious to win over my brother Semka and myself... They did not take her by his order— He will order her to be returned."

"What if he gave the order?" asked the Abbe Vishoniak. "Though he is a crusader, he is more upright than other men," replied the duke; "and, I tell you, he would rather win me now than make me angry. The old Achaeans are no joke. Hey! They They can play us as much as they want, but they can't see that if we Majurs help Achael too, things will be bad.  …” But the knight of Drugolas said: "That is the truth. Crusader knights do no fools; so I think that if they take the girl, it is either to disarm Jurand, or to claim A ransom, or an exchange for her." At this point, he turned to the knight of Spyhof and said:

"Who are some of your prisoners of war now?" "Monsieur de Bergove," answered Jurand. "Is he important?" "It seems to be more important." When De Lauche heard De Bergoff's name, he asked about him. After he figured it out, he said: "He is a relative of the Duke of Gertly, the great benefactor of the Knights, and he dedicated himself to the Knights from birth." .” "Yes," said the knight of Drugolas, translating his words to those present. "De Bergove has a high status in the Knights." "No wonder Dunwiert and de Lauve insisted on his release," reminded the duke.

"They don't talk about it. When they talk, they talk about the necessity of releasing de Bergoff. By God, they must take this girl to use her as a ransom for de Bergoff." "Well, then they will surely let Danusia back," said the prince. "But it's better to know where she is," replied Lord Drugolas. "Should the Grand Master ask, 'Who am I to order her back?' What would we say then?" "Where is she?" said Jurand feebly. "They certainly wouldn't put her on the frontier, for fear that I would snatch her back. They must have sent her somewhere to a remote walled city, or somewhere by the sea." But Zbyszko said: "I must find her and get her out." The duke's smoldering anger now flared up: "These scoundrels have taken her from my court and disgraced me. As long as I live, I won't forgive this! I've had enough. I've had enough of their treachery! I've had enough of their raids! I'd rather live with wolves! Now the Grand Master must punish their lords, send this girl back, and send messengers to apologize to me, or else I must It's time to fight!" Having said this, he hit the table with his fist and said: "Oh! The Duke of Plotsk will sponsor me, and the armies of the old King Witout and Achaean! Enough of the crusader knights! Even a saint has reached the point where he can't bear it."I've had enough! " Everyone was silent until his anger subsided; Anna Danuta was pleased to see the duke take Danusia's business so seriously; Whatever you do, you must achieve your goal, and you will never give up halfway. At this moment, Father Vishoniak rose to speak. "It was once a rule of the Order," he said, "that no lord should make his own claim to any matter without the permission of the Order and the Grand Master. That is why God gave them such a vast state, surpassing almost all other secular states. But now, they know neither obedience, truth, honesty, nor faith. They only know greed, robbery, they are wolves, not human beings. How can they obey if they don’t even obey the commandments of God? What about the orders of the Grand Master and the Priest? Each lives in his own castle like an independent duke—and conspires with each other to do evil. We go and complain to the Grand Master—but they will deny it. The Grand Master will order them to return the girl, but they will refuse, or say, 'She is not with us, we have not taken her.' He will order them to swear, and they will do so. Then, What should we do?" "What to do?" Drugolas' knight continued. "Let Jurand go to Spychof. If the knights of the crusaders really kidnapped her for ransom, or in exchange for de Bergove, then of course they would only tell Jurand, and won't tell anyone." "It was the men who came to the forest palace who carried her away," said the priest. "Then the Grand Master will bring them up for trial, or order them to fight Jurand." "They must fight me," cried Zbyszko, "because I challenged them first!" Jurand moved his hands covering his face and asked, "Among them, has anyone ever been to the Forest Palace?" "There is Dunwiert, old man de Lauve, and two mages, Godfried and Rotgier," answered the priest. "They filed a complaint and wanted the Duke to order you to release de Bergove. But the Duke heard de Fauci say that the Germans attacked you first, and he reprimanded them and sent them away." "Go to Spychof," said the prince, "for they will approach you there. They have not approached you until now because the young knight's squire sent them an oral challenge. Broke Dunwiert's arm. Go to Spychof. If they send someone to connect, tell me. They'll send your daughter for de Bergoff, but I'm anyway They will not let them go, because they have taken her from my court, and they are insulting me." At this point the prince could not help feeling angry again, for the Teutons had utterly overwhelmed him; and after a while he said: "Hey! They play with fire again and again, and they must burn themselves in the end." "They will deny it," repeated the Abbe Vishoniak. "As soon as they inform Jurand that the girl is with them, they will not give it up," replied Mikolaj of Drugolas, somewhat impatiently.He believed they were not keeping her on the border, but, as Jurand rightly pointed out, they had taken her to a distant castle or to the sea, but if there was evidence that they were the perpetrators, they You can't deny it in front of the head of the group. Jurand said in a strange and terrible voice: "Dunwiert, De Lauf, Godfried and Rotgier." Mykolai of Drugolas also advocated sending capable and experienced men to Prussia to find out if Jurand's daughter was there, and if not, where she had been robbed; and went out to issue the necessary orders; the princess turned again to Jurand with words of consolation: "How are you?" she asked. He didn't answer right away, as if he didn't hear the question, he said suddenly after a while: "It seems that someone hit my old wound." "But you must trust in the mercy of God; Danusia will come back when you have put de Begove back. I will sacrifice everything I have." The princess hesitated for a moment, not sure whether to bring up the marriage now, but after thinking about it for a while, she felt that Jurand's misfortune should not add to his worries, and she was also a little worried. "They will go to her with Zbyszko; perhaps Zbyszko will have a chance of telling him," she thought, "and it would really drive him crazy to mention this marriage to him now." So she preferred to talk about it. something else. "Don't blame us," she said. "The other day someone wore your uniform and brought a letter with your seal saying that you were sick, you were going blind, and wanted to see your daughter. How could we object, how could we not Follow her biological father's orders?" Jurand embraced her feet. "I blame no one, kind lady." "You still have to believe that God will give her back to you, because the Lord is protecting her. The Lord will rescue her, as he did during the last hunting. That time, a fierce wild bull rushed towards us— —Thanks to the revelation of Jesus that Zbyszko defended us. He almost took his own life and was sick for a long time afterwards, but he saved Danusia and me, so the Duke gave him a knight's belt and a pair of spurs You see! . . . God guards her. Of course, the child is poor! I am very sad myself. I thought she would come with you, that I would see the lovely child, but now..." Her voice trembled, tears welled up in her eyes, and Jurand's long-suppressed grief broke out suddenly and terribly like a storm." He grabbed his long hair and threw his head against the wall. Go, wailing repeatedly in a hoarse voice: "Jesus!Jesus!Jesus! " Zbyszko jumped up to him, shook him by the shoulders with all his might, and shouted: "We must go! To Spykhov!"