Chapter 60 Chapter Twenty Six

The two riders braved the storm and the downpour towards the borders of Spychof.This is Siegfried and Tolima.Tolima had escorted the German to protect him from an ambush by the peasants and servants of Spyhof, who were all filled with hatred and vengeance against him.Although Siegfried was disarmed, he was not in chains.The storm has caught up with them.From time to time there was a thunderclap, and the horses raised their front legs in fright.They marched silently in the valley.The road was very narrow, and the two of them always walked close together, with stirrups bumping into stirrups.Tolima, who has been used to guarding prisoners for many years, often glanced carefully at Siegfried, as if afraid of his sudden escape; every time he glanced, he couldn't help shivering, because he felt that the other's eyes were shining in the dark, Like the eyes of a devil or a vampire.Tolima suddenly thought that it would be better to make the sign of the cross on Siegfried, but he refrained from doing so, because he thought that after making the sign of the cross, he would hear a terrible strange sound, and Siegfried Te will turn into a horrible monster.His teeth chattered, and he grew more and more frightened.The old soldier, though capable of single-handedly attacking a pack of Germans, as fearlessly as an eagle swoops upon a flock of partridges, was afraid of demons and had no business with them.He really wanted to show the German the way and turn back; but he felt ashamed, so he had to lead Siegfried as far as the border.

It was only at the border of the Desbyhof Forest that the rain stopped, and the clouds took on a strange yellowish brilliance, which made Siegfried lose the above-mentioned ominous look in his eyes.But another thought came to Tolima's mind: "They ordered me to bring this mad dog safely to the border. I have already completed this task; but this villain has caused my master and his daughter to suffer. Is it true? Shall I just let him go without any vengeance or punishment? Wouldn’t it be natural and human to kill him? Ah! What if I challenge him to a duel? Yes, he has no weapons. But it’s about a mile from here. Miles away, that is Lord Yezimov's estate, let them give him a little weapon, and I shall fight him. By God's help, I will throw him down, kill him, and take his head off, Buried in the rubbish heap!" thought Tolima, looking greedily at the German and dilating her nostrils.It seemed to smell the smell of blood.It was not easy to suppress this desire, it was an arduous self-struggle; then I thought that Jurand gave the captive life and freedom to let him walk out of the border safely, otherwise his master's kindness His righteous deeds will be in vain, and Heaven will therefore reduce his reward.Only then did he restrain himself, rein in his horse, and say:

"Our borders are here; your borders are not far from here; go, you are free now; you need not worry about mortal harm if the reproaches of conscience have not crushed you, or God has not sent thunder to kill you. is you." Tolima fell back on her horse; the crusader continued on, dazed, with a savage expression on his face.He didn't answer a word, as if he didn't hear what Tolima said to him.Now he continued on a wider road, like a sleeping man. The cessation of the storm and the brightening of the sky are but an instant away.It was dark again, as dark as night.The clouds were so low that they literally hung over the forest.An ominous shadow fell from the hilltop, and a hiss was heard, as if the angel of the storm had still held back the howling and howling of the impatient Thor.Dazzling lightning lights up the frightening sky every moment and threatens the earth.Then you could see a dark forest wall on either side of this wide avenue, and a solitary rider on this avenue.Siegfried walked in a daze with a high fever.Despair had tormented his heart since Rotgier's death, and filled him with vengeful sin.Regrets, terrible visions, and turmoil of the soul had tormented him with great effort to restrain himself from madness, and sometimes he could not bear to surrender to it.The new troubles and fatigue under the strict control of the Czechs along the way, the long night spent in the dungeon of Spychof, the fate of life and death, especially Jurand's unheard of, almost Superman's righteous deeds scared him out of his wits.All this completely destroyed Siegfried's mind.Sometimes the old man was so numb physically and mentally that he lost all judgment and didn't know what he was doing.Then a fit of fever jerked him back, and at the same time aroused in him a dreary feeling of despair, ruin, and sinking—a feeling of annihilation that had lost all hope.He felt that he was in the dark night, and there was night beyond the night—a bottomless abyss full of horrors into which he must plunge.

Suddenly a voice whispered in his ear: "Go! Go!" Looking around, it was the god of death—a skeleton riding a skeleton horse, next to him, with bones rattling. "Is that you?" asked the crusader knight. "Yes, exactly. Go! Go!" But just then, he glanced to the other side and saw another traveling companion.It was a figure with a human body and an animal head, walking side by side with his stirrup leaning on the stirrup.It has a long and pointed animal head, a pair of erect ears, and a mess of black hair. "Who are you?" Siegfried asked. The figure didn't answer, just bared its teeth and snorted.

Siegfried closed his eyes, but at once he heard a louder clack of a skull, and the voice rang in his ears again: "It's time! It's time! Go, go!" "I'm going!" he replied. But the answer that came from his chest seemed to come from someone else.As if impelled by some foreign and invincible force, he dismounted, took off his high knight's saddle, and took off his bridle.His two traveling companions dismounted hastily as well, and did not leave him for a moment.They walked from the middle of the road to the edge of the woods.Once there, the black thing pulled down a branch and helped the crusader to tie his horse's bridle to the branch.

"Quick!" whispered Death. "Hurry up!" cried a voice from the top of the tree. Like a sleeping man, Siegfried passed the other end of the belt through the buckle and made a slipknot. He stepped on the saddle that had been placed under the tree, and put the slipknot around his neck. "Kick the saddle back! . . . There! Ah!" Kicking the saddle with his feet, it rolled several paces, and the unfortunate crusader's body hung there heavily.For just a brief moment, he seemed to hear a choking, snorting, growling sound, and then the hideous vampire sprang at him, shook him, and tore his chest open with its teeth. , to peel his heart.Later, although the light of his eyes was about to go out, he saw something else; alas, death, already a white cloud, came slowly to him, embraced him, and finally covered him with a layer of gloom. And the tight curtain surrounded him and covered everything.

There was a storm.Thunder roared in the middle of the road, making a terrible rumbling sound, as if the bottom of the earth had also shaken.The whole forest was bent and bent by the storm.Whoosh, hiss.The howling, the creaking of trunks, and the crackling of broken branches filled the depths of the woods.The heavy rain that came with the storm covered the whole world.Siegfried's body hanging by the roadside can only be seen occasionally when there is a burst of blood-red lightning. The next morning a large procession appeared on this road, led by Jagienka, Anurka, and the Czechs.Behind is the carriage, surrounded by four servants with bows and swords.Each driver also had a spear and an ax beside him, not counting the tin-covered pitchforks and other weapons for cutting thorns and thorns on the road.Without these weapons there would be no defense against the beasts, the bandits that harassed the borders of the Crusader Order.In his letters to the Grand Master of the Knights, and when he and the Grand Master met at La Tronzha, Achail protested the harassment on the border.

Equipped with skilled manpower and sophisticated weapons, this retinue was fearless along the way. The weather was fine after the storm; so pleasant, and so still, and so bright, that the sun would dazzle your eyes if you did not seek the shade.The leaves were motionless; on each leaf were large drops of rain, which the sun made into a rainbow.The raindrops on the pine needles are like big, dazzling diamonds.The rainwater merged into many small streams on the road, making pleasant noises, flowing down to the lower places, where they merged into shallow lakes.The surrounding area is wet and full of dew, smiling in the bright morning light.On such mornings, too, people's hearts are filled with joy.So the grooms and servants hummed; and they were astonished to see the silence of the riders ahead.

But those people were silent because there was a heavy stone on Jagienka's heart.It was as if something in her life had come to an end, shattered.Although she is not good at contemplation, nor can she clearly judge the cause, nor can she discern what kind of emotion is in her heart and why she has this emotion, but she feels that everything she has experienced in her life has been in vain. All hope evaporated like morning mist over a field.She felt that it was time to abandon everything, forget everything, and start a new life.She also thought that, thanks to the blessing of God, the current situation is not so bad, but this situation is bleak after all, and the new life may not be as good as the past life.Her heart was filled with infinite melancholy, and tears welled up in her eyes at the thought that all the hopes of the past were gone forever.But even though he was suffering a lot, he didn't want to add more humiliation to himself, so he restrained himself from crying.She thought she shouldn't have left Zgortriliti in the first place; if she had, she wouldn't have had to leave Spykhov now.Macko, she thought, had not brought her to Spyhof not merely to make sure that Chitan and Wilk would never again attack Zgortrilitri for her.She didn't think so. "That's not the case," she thought. "Matsko himself knows that, and that's not the only reason he wants me to leave there. Zbyszko will know that too." She blushed at this thought, and felt Unlimited bitterness.

"I've had so little self-respect," she said to herself, "that's why I'm reaping the consequences." Not only was there a sense of uneasiness and a hopeless future, and now there was a sense of humiliation added to the prospect of only living in sorrow from now on. But the worrying thoughts of this group of disciples were interrupted by a person who came in a hurry.Nothing could escape the eyes of the Czech, and he hurriedly rode towards the man.The visitor carried a crossbow on his back, a badger skin bag hanging from his waist, and a tuft of black woodsnipe feathers on his hat. He was clearly a forest watcher.

"Hey! Who are you? Stop!" shouted the Czech. This person stepped forward quickly, his face was very excited, and he looked like he was going to convey some great event.he shouted: "There is a man hanging from a tree in front!" The Czech was taken aback, thought it might be a murder, and immediately asked the forester: "How far is it from here?" "It's a stone's throw away, on this road." "Is no one with him?" "There was no one; there was a wolf sniffing around the body, and I drove him away." Halava was relieved to hear him mention wolves.For it was tantamount to telling him that there were neither people nor farms around here. Then Jagienka ordered: "Go and see, what happened?" Halaffa ran forward, and hurried back again at once. "Siegfried hanged there!" he shouted, reining in his horse in front of Jagienka. "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! You don't mean Siegfried, the Crusader knight?" "Yes, the crusader knight. He hanged himself by the bridle." "You mean he hanged himself?" "It seems so, for the saddle was beside him, and if he had been killed by robbers they would have killed him, snatched the saddle, and run away, and that saddle is very valuable." "How do we go?" "Let's not go that way! No!" Anurka yelled in fear. "We might be unlucky!" Jagienka was also a little frightened, because she believed that a host of demons surrounded the suicide corpse.But the brave Halava said: "Well, I went up to him just now, and pushed him with the spear, and didn't feel any devil come down on my neck." "Don't blaspheme!" cried Jagienka. "I am not blasphemy," replied the Czech, "I only believe in the power of God. But if you are afraid, we will detour." Anurka begged him to go around; but Jagienka, after thinking for a while, said: "It's not good not to bury a dead body. This is what God instructed Catholics to do. No matter what, Siegfried is always a human body." "Yes, but that is the body of a crusader knight, and a hangman and executioner! Let the crows and the wolves take his body." "Don't talk stupidly! God will judge his sin, but we must do our duty; if we fulfill God's holy commandments, we will not be in trouble." "Well, then do as you please," replied the Czech. He told the servants what to do, and the servants were very reluctant to do it.But they were afraid of Halava, and it was dangerous to disobey him.There is no shovel for digging the grave, so I have to gather the pitchfork and the ax together, and dig the grave instead of the shovel.The Czechs also went with them, set an example for them, first crossed themselves, and cut off the belts hanging the corpses themselves. Siegfried's face was already blue and ugly, his eyes were opened wide, showing a look of terror, and his mouth was also opened wide, as if he was trying to take his last breath.They quickly dug a hole nearby, pushed Siegfried's body in with the handle of a pitchfork, let him lie there face down, first covered with a layer of soil, and then moved stones to press it, because According to ancient customs, stones should be laid on the grave of the hanged person, otherwise the hanged ghost will come out at night to frighten passers-by. The road and under the moss were stony, so that the tomb soon formed a fairly large hillock.Halava carved another cross in a nearby pine tree.He did this not for Siegfried, but to prevent the devils from gathering here.Then he came back to the retinue. "His soul is in hell, and his body is already underground," he said to Jagienka. "We can go now." They set off; Jagienka passed by the grave, took a small pine branch and stuck it between the stones.Everyone does what Missy does.That too is an ancient custom. For a long time, as they traveled, they brooded over the wicked priest and knight.At last Jagienka said: "God's judgment cannot escape. It does not even allow people to pray for him'eternal rest'①, because God is not merciful to such people." ① English translation note: This sentence means "May God rest his soul in peace". "You have shown your compassion by ordering his body to be buried," replied the Czech. Then he stammered again: "People say, bah! Maybe not people, but witches and sorcerers--they say a noose or a belt taken from a hanged man will keep you lucky everywhere. But I didn't take the belt from Siegfried, because I hope your luck comes from the Lord Jesus, not from a wizard." Jagienka did not answer him immediately, but after a while, sighing several times, said to herself: "Alas! My happiness is in the past, it does not lie ahead!"