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Suddenly the sister, as if she had just remembered something, said: "I dreamed that some knight wrapped you with a white mantle on the snow. Perhaps it was a Krzyzak! They wear white mantles." "I want neither Krzyzaks nor their mantles," answered the girl.
I was twenty years old then, and I had just come from Cylia with my uncle Petzoldt. The Krzyzaks attacked the town and set it on fire. We could see from the walls, how in the market square they cut men and women's heads off, and how they threw little children into the fire. They even killed the priests, because in their fury they spared nobody.
They slaughtered the monks also, among them my uncle Petzoldt; the prior Mikolaj was tied to a horse's tail. The next morning there was no man alive in this town except the Krzyzaks and myself. I hid on a beam in the belfry. God punished them at Plowce; but they still want to destroy this Christian kingdom, and nothing will deter them unless God's arm crush them."
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.
A few days ago, when the prince rewarded him with the golden spurs, he had thought that his joy would conquer his illness, and he had prayed fervently to God to be permitted to soon rise and fight with the Krzyzaks; but now he had again lost all hope, because he felt that if Danusia were not at his bedside, then with her would go his desire for life and the strength to fight with death.
Here he stopped for a while, and then added: "The people say that the Krzyzaks have a purpose in coming here and in going to Plock to the court of Prince Ziemowit. They would like to have the princes pledge themselves not to help the king but to aid them; or if they do not agree to help the Krzyzaks, that at least they will remain neutral; but the princes will not do that."
In the meanwhile, I will give you a medicine for him, and I trust it will relieve him or cure him entirely." "Have the Krzyzaks sent the balm?" asked Danusia quickly, taking her little hands from her eyes. "With that balm which the Krzyzaks will send, you had better smear a dog than a knight whom you love. I will give you something else."
He had gone only a short distance, when the Czech who was riding behind him, drew near and said: "Your Grace, some knights are coming behind us; they must be Krzyzaks."
The prince immediately sent me to the boundary, to conduct them safely to his castle." "Could they not come without your help!" "Our nation is very angry with the Krzyzaks, because of their great treacherousness; a Krzyzak will hug and kiss you, but he is ready in the same moment to stab you with a knife from behind; and such conduct is odious to us Mazurs.
Having heard this, Prince Janusz began to nod his head and said: "Hej! formerly the Krzyzaks were received hospitably in Spychow, and Jurand was not your foe, until after his dear wife died on your rope; and how many times have you attacked him first, wishing to kill him, as in this last case, because he challenged and defeated your knights?
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