The Knights of the Cross/Volume 1/Chapter 30

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

CHAPTER XXX.

In that same hall, in the evening, at a table sat old Siegfried, who after Danveld's demise had taken temporary charge of Schytno; near him sat Brother Rotgier, the knight de Bergov, Yurand's recent captive, and two noble youths, novices, who were soon to assume the white mantle. A winter whirlwind was howling outside the windows; it shook the leaden sashes, and caused the torches burning in iron sockets to quiver, and blew from time to time rolls of smoke down the chimney, and through the hall. Silence reigned among the brothers, though they had assembled to take counsel. They were waiting for Siegfried's words, but he, with elbows on the table and his palms against his drooping gray head, sat gloomy, with his face in the shadow, and grim thoughts in his soul.

"On what are we to take counsel?" asked Brother Rotgier, at last.

Siegfried raised his head, gazed at the speaker, and said, rousing himself from meditation,—

"On the misfortune and on this: What will the Grand Master and the Chapter say? Besides, we are to see that no harm come to the Order from our actions."

Then he was silent again, but after a time he looked around and moved his nostrils.

"There is still an odor of blood here."

"No," answered Rotgier, "I gave command to wash the floor, and smoke the place with sulphur. The smell is of sulphur."

Siegfried cast a strange glance on those present and said,—

"Have mercy, O God, on the soul of Brother Danveld and on the soul of Brother Gottfried!"

But they understood that he implored the mercy of God on those souls because the thought of hell had occurred to him at the mention of sulphur; hence a shiver ran through their bones, and all answered in chorus,—

"Amen, amen, amen!"

For a time the howling of the wind was heard and the shaking of the window-panes.

"Where are the bodies of the comtur and Brother Gottfried?" asked the old man.

"In the chapel; the priests there are singing a litany over them."

"Are they in the coffins already?"

"In the coffins, but the comtur's head is covered, for his face and skull are broken."

"Where are the other bodies?—and the wounded?"

"The bodies are on the snow, so as to stiffen before the coffins are finished. The wounded are cared for in the hospital."

Siegfried joined his hands above his head a second time.

"And one man did all this! O God, have the Order in Thy care when it comes to a general war with this wolfish race!"

At these words Rotgier cast a glance upward as if recalling something, and said,—

"At Vilno I heard the Voit of Sambia say to his brother the Grand Master: 'Unless thou raise a great war and destroy them so that their name be not left—woe to us and our people.'"

"God give such a war and grant a meeting with them!" said one of the noble novices.

Siegfried looked at him fixedly, as if wishing to say: "Thou couldst have met one to-day," but seeing the slender and youthful figure of the novice, and remembering, perhaps, that he himself, though renowned for courage, would not court sure destruction, he omitted to reproach him, and only asked,—

"Has any of you seen Yurand?"

"I have," answered De Bergov.

"Is he alive?"

"Alive, but lying in the net in which they entangled him. When he regained consciousness the soldiers wished to finish him, but the chaplain would not permit."

"It is not permissible to kill him. He is a man of consideration among his own people, and there would be a terrible outcry," answered Siegfried. "It will be impossible too to conceal what has happened, for there were too many spectators."

"What are we to say then, and what must we do?" inquired Rotgier.

Siegfried meditated a while.

"You, noble Count de Bergov," said he at last, "go to the Grand Master at Malborg. You have groaned as a captive in Yurand's castle, and are a guest of the Order; being a guest, hence not obliged absolutely to speak in favor of the brothers, men will believe you all the more. Tell what you have seen. Say that Danveld captured a certain maiden from bandits on the boundary, and thinking her the daughter of Yurand, informed Yurand, who came to Schytno,—and what happened later you yourself know."

"Consider, pious comtur," said De Bergov, "I have suffered sore captivity at Spyhov, and as your guest I should be glad to testify at all times in your favor; but tell me, to satisfy my conscience, was not Yurand's daughter really in Schytno, and did not Danveld's treachery bring her dreadful father to that madness?"

Siegfried halted with the answer. In his nature lay profound hatred of the Poles, and also cruelty, in which he exceeded even Danveld, and rapacity whenever the Order was in question; and in it were pride and also greed, but falsehood was not there. Hence the great bitterness of his life and its deepest sorrow was this, that in recent times all interests of the Order had arranged themselves in such fashion, through self-will, disobedience, and debauchery, that falsehood had become a common weapon, and one of the most effective in the business of the Order. Therefore De Bergov's question touched the most painful side in his soul, and only after a long period of silence did he answer,—

"Danveld is standing before God, and God is judging him. If they ask you for opinions, tell what you please; if they ask what your eyes have seen, tell them that before we entangled the raging man in a net you saw nine corpses on the floor, besides the wounded, and among them those of Danveld, Brother Gottfried, Von Bracht, an Englishman, and two noble youths—God grant eternal rest to them. Amen!"

"Amen! Amen!" said the novices.

"And say also," added Siegfried, "that, though Danveld desired to quell the enemy of the Order, no one here drew the sword first on Yurand."

"I will only tell what my eyes have seen," replied De Bergov.

"Before midnight you will be in the chapel, where we also shall be, to pray for the souls of the departed," said Siegfried. And he stretched forth his hand as a sign of thanks and dismissal, for till further consultation he desired to be alone with Brother Rotgier, whom he loved and in whom he had great confidence. In fact, after the departure of De Bergov he dismissed the two novices under pretext of hastening work on the coffins of the common soldiers slain by Yurand, but when the door closed behind them he turned to Rotgier quickly and said,—

"Listen to what I tell thee. There is only one salvation, concealment; no living soul must ever know that Yurand's real daughter was with us."

"That will not be difficult," answered Rotgier; "no one knew that she was here except Danveld, Gottfried, us two, and that serving woman of the Order who has care of her. Danveld gave command to intoxicate the men who brought her hither from the hunting-lodge, and then he hanged them. There were persons in the garrison who suspected something, but they were confused through that idiotic maiden, and now they know not whether we mistook the girl, or some wizard really metamorphosed Yurand's daughter."

"That is well."

"I have thought, noble comtur, of this: Should we not throw all the blame on Danveld, since he is not alive?"

"And acknowledge before the whole world that we in time of peace and while negotiating with Prince Yanush of Mazovia bore off from his court a foster daughter of the princess, her favorite damsel? No, as God lives, that cannot be! People have seen us at the court with Danveld, and Danveld's relative, the Grand Hospitaller, knows that he and we undertook everything in company. If we accuse Danveld the Hospitaller will try to avenge his memory."

"Let us consider this point," said Rotgier.

"We must consider it well, or woe to us. If Yurand's daughter is set free she will say that we did not rescue her from bandits, but that the men who took her carried her to Schytno directly."

"That is true!"

"And God is witness that I am thinking not of responsibility alone; the prince will complain to the King of Poland, and their ambassadors will not fail to cry out at all courts against our violence, our crime, our treachery. God alone knows how much harm may result to the Order from this matter. If the Grand Master himself knew the truth he would be bound in duty to secrete that maiden."

"If that be true, when she disappears they will not complain of us, will they?" asked Rotgier.

"No! Brother Danveld was very adroit. Dost thou remember that he laid this down as a condition to Yurand, that he was not only to present himself at Schytno, but before coming to declare, and to inform the prince by letter, that he was going to ransom his daughter from bandits, and knew that she was not in our possession?"

"True, but how justify that which has happened at Schytno?"

"We will say that as we knew Yurand to be searching for his daughter, and as we had rescued from bandits a girl who could not tell who she was, we notified Yurand, thinking that this might be his daughter; but when he came he fell into a rage at sight of the girl, and, possessed by the evil one, shed so much innocent blood that frequently more is not shed in a battle."

"Indeed," answered Rotgier, "reason and the experience of age speak through you. Danveld's evil deeds, even should we accuse him, would be laid on the Order, therefore on us all, on the Chapter, and the Grand Master himself; but when our innocence is evident all blame will fall upon Yurand, to the detriment of the Poles and their alliance with Satan."

"And after that let any one judge us who pleases: the Pope, or the Roman Caesar!"

"Yes!"

A moment of silence followed, after which Rotgier inquired,—

"What shall we do with Yurand's daughter?"

"Let us think over this."

"Give her to me."

Siegfried looked at him and answered,—

"No! Listen, young brother! In a question of the Order spare neither man nor woman, but spare not thyself either. The hand of God touched Danveld, for he wished not only to avenge wrongs done the Order, but to gratify his own desires."

"You judge me wrongly!" said Rotgier.

"Indulge not yourselves," interrupted old Siegfried, "for ye will make both body and soul effeminate, and one day the knees of that stalwart race will press your breasts and ye will never rise afterward."

And for the third time he rested his gloomy head on his hand, and evidently he was conversing with his conscience, and was thinking of himself solely, for he said after a while,—

"On me also much human blood is weighing, much pain, many tears—I, too, when it was a question of the Order and when I saw that I could not succeed through strength alone, had no hesitation in seeking other methods; but when I stand before the Lord I shall say to Him: 'I did that for the Order, but in my own case my choice was this.'"

And when he had spoken he opened the dark garment covering his bosom, under that garment a haircloth appeared.

Then he seized his temples with his two hands, turned his face and eyes upward, and cried,—

"Renounce luxury and dissoluteness, strengthen your hearts and bodies, for up there I see white eagle plumes in the air, and eagle talons with the blood of Knights of the Cross on them."

Further words were interrupted by a sweep of the tempest, which was so terrible that a window above the gallery opened with a crash, and the entire hall was filled with the howling and whistling of wind, bearing snowflakes.

"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! This is an evil night," said the old man.

"A night when foul spirits have power," answered Rotgier.

"But are there priests with Danveld's body?"

"There are."

"He left the world without absolution—O God, be merciful to him!"

And both were silent. Then Rotgier called attendants and commanded them to close the window and trim the torches. When they had gone he inquired again,—

"What will you do with Yurand's daughter? Will you take her to Insburg?"

"I will take her to Insburg, and dispose of her as the good of the Order demands."

"Well, what am I to do?"

"Hast thou courage in thy soul?"

"What have I done to cause you doubt on that point?"

"I doubt not, for I know thee and I love thee as a son because of thy manfulness. Go then to the court of the Mazovian prince and relate to him all that has happened here, just as we have described it between us."

"I may expose myself to certain destruction."

"Should thy destruction be to the glory of the Cross and the Order thou art bound to go. But no! Destruction is not awaiting thee. They will not harm a guest unless some one may wish perhaps to challenge thee, as did that young knight who challenged all of us—He, or some other may challenge, but of course that is not terrible."

"God grant it to come! But they may seize me and cast me into a dungeon."

"They will not. Remember that Yurand wrote a letter to the prince, and moreover thou wilt go to complain against Yurand. Thou wilt tell truly what he did in Schytno, and they must believe thee. The case is this : we informed him first that there was a girl in our possession, we begged him to come and look at her; he came, he went mad, killed the comtur, slaughtered our people. Thus wilt thou speak,—but what can they say to thee in answer? The death of Danveld will be heralded throughout all Mazovia. In the face of that they will cease complaints. Evidently they will search for Yurand's daughter, but since Yurand himself wrote that she was not in our hands suspicion will not fall on us. We must be brave and shut their jaws, for they will think, if we do so, that were we guilty no man of us would dare go to them."

"That is true. After Danveld's funeral I will take the road immediately."

"May God bless thee, my son! If we do all that is proper, not only will they not detain thee, but they will perforce reject Yurand lest we say, 'See how they treat us!'"

"And we must complain thus at all foreign courts."

"The Grand Hospitaller will see to that for the good of the Order, and as a relative of Danveld."

"Yes, but if that Spyhov devil should recover and regain liberty?"

Siegfried glanced forward gloomily, then he answered slowly and with emphasis,—

"Even should he be free again he will not utter one word of complaint against the Order."

After that he began again to instruct Rotgier what to say and what to demand at the court of Mazovia.