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"You will not find any witnesses, but they amount to nothing, if honor and word are in question." "Upon your honor, upon that of the Order," exclaimed Jurand. "Then your daughter will be returned to you!" replied Danveld, and, turning to the others, remarked: "All that has happened to him here is an innocent trifle in comparison with his violence and crimes.
Having heard this, Hugo von Danveld put his elbows on the table, leaned his head on his hands and plunged into deep thought. Then his eyes became bright, he wiped, according to his custom, his moist, thick lips with the upper part of his hand and said: "May the moment in which you mentioned, pious brother, the name of the valiant Shomberg be blessed." "Why?
Danveld added to the letter his personal complaint, asking humbly but also threateningly for remuneration for his crippled hand and a sentence of death against the Czech. The prince tore the letter into pieces in the presence of the captain, threw it under his feet and said: "The grand master sent those scoundrels of Krzyzaks to win me over, but they have incited me to wrath.
And the hot Rotgier, famous for his courage and cruelties, said: "How is this? not only the girl but also that devilish dog is going to be liberated, that he may bite again?" "He will bite not that way only!" exclaimed Godfried. "Bah! he will pay ransom!" lazily replied Danveld. "Even if he should return everything, in a year he will have robbed twice as much."
Such a speech astounded some, because, knowing Danveld and his old hatred for Jurand, they did not expect such honesty from him.
Danveld wrinkled his brows, but at that moment the castle fool started to rattle the chain to which he had fastened the bear, and called out: "Sermon! sermon! the preacher from Mazowsze has arrived! Listen! to the sermon!" Then turning to Danveld, he said: "Sir! Duke Rosenheim ordered his sexton to eat the bell-rope from knot to knot whenever the latter awakened him too early for the sermon.
Others surrounded Jurand again and commenced to brag before him, praising the upright conduct of Danveld, and the impression it made upon the members of the Order. "And what bone breaker!" said the captain of the castle-archers. "Your heathen brethren would not have treated our Christian knights so!" "You drank our blood?" "And we give you bread for stones."
Then again followed a moment of silence, after which Danveld turned to the prisoner: "You were biting the faith like a mad dog, therefore God has caused you to stand before us, with a rope around your neck, looking for charity and mercy." "Do not compare me with a dog, count," replied Jurand, "because you thus lower the honor of those who met me and fell under my hand."
But the religious brethren, gentle, well-behaved, and even humble, whenever they felt they were not in power, did not know any limits before the defeated; therefore, Danveld not only nodded his head at the bear-leader as a sign that he permitted the mockery, but he himself burst out with such unheard-of roughness that the faces of the younger warriors expressed astonishment.
Of course Danveld did not say anything to Sir de Lorche about that occurrence, but instead he complained so bitterly about Jurand's atrocities and the audacity of the whole Polish nation, that the Lotaringer could not comprehend all he was saying, and said: "But we are in the country of the Mazurs and not of the Polaks."
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