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Among the courtiers, there were two rybalts; one had a lute and the other had a gensla at his girdle. One of the girls who was very young, perhaps twelve years old, carried behind the princess a very small lute ornamented with brass nails. "May Jesus Christ be praised!" said the princess, standing in the centre of the room.
We do not lack rybalts who cheer up the court, but she is the sweetest little rybalt of them all, and to the songs of no one else will the princess listen so gladly." "I don't wonder. I thought she was an angel from heaven and I can't look at her enough. What do they call her?" "Have you not heard? Danusia. Her father is Jurand of Spychow, a comes mighty and gallant." "Hej!
And then the rybalts played. The young Zbyszko of Bogdaniec, who being accustomed from childhood to war and its dreadful sights, had never in his life heard anything like it; he touched a Mazur standing beside him and asked: "Who is she?" "She is a girl from the princess' court.
Having heard this, the courtiers put a bench in the centre of the room. The rybalts sat on the ends, and between them stood that young girl who had carried behind the princess the lute ornamented with brass nails. On her head she had a small garland, her hair falling on her shoulders, and she wore a blue dress and red shoes with long points.
Danusia hid her face in the folds of the princess' dress. The courtiers, ladies and rybalts, who were on horseback behind the carriage, having heard the ill-omened name, began to surround the carriage.
"To-morrow, and Sunday, and until death," answered Zbyszko. Supper lasted a long time, because after the nuts, sweet cakes with raisins were served. Some of the courtiers wished to dance; others wished to listen to the rybalts or to Danusia's singing; but she was tired, and having with great confidence put her little head on the knight's shoulder, she fell asleep.
Behind them, near the wall, sat six men of the abbot's retinue; two of them were rybalts; one was a pilgrim, who could easily be distinguished by his curved stick and dark mantle; the others looked like seminarists because their heads were shaved, but they wore lay clothing, girdles of ox leather, and swords.
The rybalts accompanied her, one on the gensliks, the other on a big lute; the princess, who loved the lay songs better than anything else in the world, began to move her head back and forth, and the young girl sang further with a thin, sweet childish voice, like a bird singing in the forest: "I would then be seated On the high enclosure: Look, my dear Jasiulku, Look on me, poor orphan."
"Does she sleep?" asked the princess. "There you have your 'lady." "She is dearer to me while she sleeps than the others are while they dance," answered Zbyszko, sitting motionless so as not to awaken the girl. But she was awakened neither by the rybalts' music nor by the singing.
Finally the principal door was opened, showing the interior of a brightly lighted hall, and on the piazza appeared a man whom Zbyszko immediately recognized as one of the rybalts, whom he had seen with the princess in Krakow.
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