Chapter 74 Chapter Forty

Matsko and Jagienka stopped for a while in Plotsk in order to inquire carefully about the abbot's will and read the contents of this document, and then they continued on their way without stopping.The heat dried out the swamps and narrowed the river.Have a safe trip and meet their own peaceful and hospitable people.Careful Matsko sent a messenger from Shiraz to Zgotrilici to inform them that Jagienka and him had returned; Jagienka's brother Yasko got the information and led twenty armed men. Servants came halfway to meet them and lead them home. When they arrived at Zgotriliti, people cheered and greeted them.Yasko and Jagienka were so alike in appearance that they seemed cast out of a mold, but the brother was taller than Jagienka.Like Zich who died, the child was full of energy, talking and laughing, and inherited from his father the instinct to sing all the time.Yasco was very enthusiastic, and thought he was a mature and strong man, ordering his servants to do this and that like a veritable master, and his orders were executed in a blink of an eye, which was very authoritative.

Matsko and Jagienka were surprised to see this change; Yasho saw that his sister was so tall and looked like a court.It was a mixture of surprise and delight, since he hadn't seen his sister for a long time.He told them that he was on his way to see her before he received word that she was coming back, and that if they had been a little longer on the way they would not have met him at home; When he saw the world; he said that he needed to get in touch with people, get some knight education, and look for opportunities to duel with knight errants. "It's a good thing to see the world and understand the customs of the people, because it will teach you how to act and how to speak in various situations," Macko said, "and it will also increase your knowledge. As for talking When it comes to a duel, then I have to tell you that you are too young to talk about a duel, otherwise the foreign knights will definitely laugh at you."

"After he laughs, it's better not to cry. If he doesn't cry, it must be his wife and children." He looked ahead very proudly, as if challenging the knight-errants of the world, and at the same time wanted to say to them: "Prepare to die." But the old knight of Bogdaniec asked him: "Didn't Chedang and Wilk come to trouble you? Both of them want to pursue Jagienka." "Hey! Wilke was killed in Silesia. He was trying to take a Germanic castle, and was about to take it, when a log fell from the wall and hit him, and after two days his soul was delivered to God."

"It's a pity! His father also went to Silesia to fight the Germans who oppressed our people, and got a lot of spoils from the Germans... It is very difficult to attack the castle, and ordinary weapons and knight skills are useless. May I God, don't let the Duke of Wittut go to besiege the castle, but only fight the crusader knights on the battlefield... What about Chidang? Have you heard about him?" Yasco laughed. "Chedden is married. He has a farmer's beautiful daughter for his wife from Vinky Bursig. Hi! Not only a beauty, but a good wife. Chedang is a quarrelsome fellow, and she Slapped his shaggy face and pulled him by the nose like a bear in chains."

The old knight was glad to hear this, "You see! Women are all alike; you, Jagienka, will be like her! Thank God I've saved myself from trouble with these two brutes. To be honest, they didn't come to invade Bogdaniets, I'm surprised." "Chedang wanted to do it, but Wilk was more intelligent and wouldn't let him. He came to Zgotriliti to ask us about Jagienka. I told him that she was going to take care of the abbot's estate. He said: "Why didn't Macko tell me about it?" I replied: "Is Jagienka one of yours, so I must tell you?" He thought for a while, then said: "You are right. , she is not mine.' Since he is a shrewd man, and obviously wants to make friends with you and us, he will oppose him if Chedan attacks Bogdaniec. Raveza did fight and both were injured. After that, they got drunk as usual."

"May the light of God shine upon Wilk's soul," Macko said. He sighed deeply. He was very happy. Bogdaniec had not suffered any other major losses because of his long-term absence. Indeed, he saw no loss at all; on the contrary, cattle had been added to the herd, and several two-year-old ponies had been born to the fillies;The only loss, he found, was the escape of a few slaves, but not many; at most they escaped to Silesia, where the Germans, or Germanized robber knights, treated their prisoners more cruelly than the Polish nobles. He found the old big house even more dilapidated.The dirt floor inside is cracked, the ceiling and walls are sloping, and the larch beams that were cut more than two hundred years ago have begun to rot.

Many of the rooms once inhabited by Bogdaniec's numerous "Graches" had leaked during the summer rains.There were holes in the roof, covered with clumps of red and green moss.The whole house was sunken deep into the ground, and looked like a rotten mushroom spreading out in all directions. "If my old man hadn't been out, the house wouldn't have been ruined, because it's been run down recently," Macko said to the old butler Contrat, who was in charge of the Pogue while the master was away. Dennets. After a while, he said again: "I'll live here so-so until I die. But Zbyszko must have a castle."

"My God! Do you mean a castle?" "Hey! What's there?" It was Macko's favorite idea to build a castle for Zbyszko and his descendants.He knew that an aristocrat should not live in an ordinary manor house, but should live behind the moat, where there should be a lookout, from which the guards can see everything around them and the situation of their neighbors, that would be interesting.Macko himself had few demands, but for the sake of Zbyszko and his children he could not be content with little, especially now that his fortune had increased so much. "Well, if only he could marry Jagienka," he thought, "and let her come with Mochitori and the abbot's estate, there would be no one in the neighborhood who could compare with us. May God send I get my wish!"

But it all depends on Zbyszko's return. "But it's hard to say whether he will come back or not. It depends on God's will," Macko said to himself. "I must please God. Not only must I not offend him in the slightest, but I must flatter him as much as possible." For this purpose, he generously donated candle oil, food, and game to the church in Kirsisnya; and one evening, when he was visiting Zgotririti, he said to Jagienka: "I'm going to Cracow tomorrow to visit the tomb of our holy Queen Jadwija." She jumped up from her seat in fright. "Is there any bad news?"

"No news at all, and I didn't expect any news so soon; but you remember that when I was sick, I had a piece of iron on my side (you must remember that, because you went with Zbyszko to hunt I brought an otter), I swore then that if God restored my health, I would visit the queen's tomb. You all praised my vow at that time. Of course God has many servants of saints, but they None are as important as Jadwiga (and there are so many of them), and I don't want to offend her, especially since it concerns Zbyszko." "Yes! It is absolutely true," said Jagienka. "However, you have just returned from a long and difficult journey..."

"What's the matter! I'd rather have everything done at once and rest at home until Zbyszko comes back. I wish our Queen would intercede for him to God Jesus, and he would put on that fine dress." even ten Germans would not be able to resist him...then I shall build a castle with better intentions." "But your body is not strong yet." "Nothing! I'm still tough. I'm going to tell you one more thing. Yasco wants to go out, let him go with me. I'm an experienced man and I can handle him; if something happens-- For he is young, and his hands tend to itch—then you know I am no novice at war, whether on foot or on horseback, with sword or ax." "I know that no one can protect him better than you." "But as far as I know, it is unlikely to fight, because when the queen was alive, many foreign knights came to Krakow to admire her beauty. Now they would rather go to Marburg, because there are big barrels and barrels rose wine." "Hey! There's a new queen already." Macko shrugged and gestured. "I've seen her! I don't want to say more, understand?" After a while, he said again: "We can go home in three or four weeks." That's it.The old knight ordered Yasco to swear on the knight's honor and on the head of St. Jesse that he would not ask to go anywhere else; and they set off. They traveled safely to Cracow, unassailed by the Germanized princely dukes and German bandit knights on the frontier, who feared the king's army and the stoic demeanor of the Polish knights.After paying homage to the queen's tomb, he was led to the king's court by Povara of Tachev and young Duke Yamont.Macko thought that since he had such an experience, people at the court and in the government office couldn't wait to ask him about the crusader knights, because he had lived with them and observed them carefully.But after talking with the Keeper of the Seals and the Swordmaster of Cracow, he was amazed to find that they knew much more about the Knights of the Crusade than he did.They knew everything, down to every detail of Marlborough and other remotest castles.They knew the number of soldiers in the Crusader Order; who the commanders in various places were; how many cannons there were;They even knew the character of each Comto, whether their temper was reckless and violent or careful; every detail was carefully recorded, as if war would break out the next morning. The old knight rejoiced; he knew that Cracow had prepared for battle more prudently, wisely, and with greater strength than Marburg. "God gave us even greater courage than they did," Maczko said to himself, "and of course more foresight." Indeed.He also figured out where they got the information from.The informants were the Prussian population, a mix of Poles and Germans.What the Knights had done had aroused such hatred that all the Prussian people looked forward to the arrival of Achaean's troops to free them from slavery. Macko then remembered what Centrum had told him at Marlborough; he repeated in his mind: "Here's the brains! Really smart!" He also remembered everything that Sentram said at that time; once, when Jasco Jr. asked him about the situation of the Knights of the Crusaders, he even used the wise words of this outstanding knight, and replied: "Those dogs are very powerful, but what do you think? Even the most capable knight will fall off his horse if his saddle girdle and stirrups are cut off?" "It's bound to fall, I promise," the boy replied. "Ha! Look!" Macko thundered. "I wanted you to see that." "So what?" "Because the Knights of the Crusader are exactly such knights." After a while, he said again: "You don't hear that from everyone; don't worry!" Because the young knight had not fully understood the meaning of the metaphor, the old knight explained it to him in detail; but he forgot to add that the metaphor was not his own, but that of Mahikovich. That terrific head at Centrum.