II

II.

That same evening, old Zygfryd de Loewe sat at a table in the hall. He had taken temporary command of Szczytno after Vogt Danveld. Beside him sat Brother Rotgier, Knight de Bergow—formerly Jurand's prisoner—and two noble youths, novices who would soon don the white mantles. A winter gale howled outside, rattling the leaded window frames, making the torches in their iron sconces flicker, and occasionally blowing gusts of smoke down the chimney into the hall. Though the brethren had gathered for a council, they sat in silence, waiting for Zygfryd to speak. He, with elbows propped on the table and hands clasped over his bowed gray head, sat grim-faced in the shadows, his soul filled with dark thoughts.

— What are we to deliberate? asked Brother Rotgier.

Zygfryd raised his head, looked at the speaker, and rousing from his reverie, said: — Our defeat. And what the Grand Master and the Chapter will say. And how to ensure that our deeds bring no harm to the Zakon.

Then he fell silent again, but after a moment he looked around and sniffed: — I can still smell blood here.

— No, Komtur, — answered Rotgier, — I had the floor washed and fumigated with sulfur. It's sulfur you smell.

Zygfryd cast a strange look at those present and said: — May God have mercy on the souls of Brother Danveld and Brother Gotfryd!

They understood that he had invoked God's mercy on those souls because the mention of sulfur had made him think of hell, and a chill ran through their bones. They all replied at once: — Amen! Amen! Amen!

For a moment the howling of the wind and the rattling of the window frames were all that could be heard.

— Where are the bodies of the Komtur and Brother Gotfryd? — asked the old man.

— In the chapel; the priests are chanting litanies over them.

— Already in coffins?

— In coffins, but the Komtur's head is covered, because both skull and face are crushed.

— Where are the other dead and the wounded?

— The dead are on the snow so they stiffen before the coffins are made, and the wounded have been tended in the hospital. Zygfryd clasped his hands over his head again.

— And one man did all this!... God, keep the Zakon in Your care when the great war comes with that wolfish breed.

At this, Rotgier raised his eyes as if recalling something and said: — I heard near Vilnius how the Vogt of Sambia said to his brother the Grand Master: 'If you do not wage a great war and destroy them so that not even their name remains, then woe to us and our nation.'

— May God grant such a war and the chance to meet them! — said one of the noble novices.

Zygfryd looked at him long and hard, as if he wanted to say, 'You could have met one of them today'—but seeing the novice's slight, young frame, and perhaps remembering that even he, though famed for courage, had not wanted to go to certain doom, he withheld the rebuke and asked: — Which of you has seen Jurand?

— I have, — replied de Bergow.

— Is he alive?

— Alive. He lies in the same net we entangled him in. When he regained consciousness, the hirelings wanted to finish him off, but the chaplain forbade it.

— He cannot be killed. He is a notable man among his people, and there would be an awful outcry, — replied Zygfryd.

— So what are we to say and do? — asked Rotgier.

Zygfryd thought for a moment and then said: — You, noble Count de Bergow, shall go to Malbork to the Grand Master. You were in captivity under Jurand and are a guest of the Zakon, so as a guest who need not necessarily speak in favor of the monastic knights, they will believe you all the more easily. Therefore, say what you saw: that Danveld, having recaptured some girl from border bandits and thinking she was Jurand's daughter, informed Jurand, who then came to Szczytno and... what happened next — you yourselves know...

— Forgive me, pious Komtur, — said de Bergow. — I endured a grievous captivity at Spychow, and as your guest I should always testify in your favor, but for the peace of my conscience, tell me: was the real Jurandówna not in Szczytno? And was it not Danveld's treachery that drove her terrible father to madness?

Zygfryd de Loewe hesitated a moment before answering. In his nature lay deep hatred for the Polish race, cruelty in which he even surpassed Danveld, a rapacity when it came to the Zakon, pride, and greed—but there was no falsehood in him. The greatest bitterness and remorse of his life was that in recent times, the Zakon's affairs, through indiscipline, debauchery, and willfulness, had come to such a pass that lying had become one of the most effective and indispensable tools of monastic life. So de Bergow's question touched him in the most painful part of his soul, and only after a long silence did he say:

— Danveld stands before God, and God judges him. As for you, Count, if they ask you about conjectures, say what you will. But if they ask about what your own eyes have seen, then say that before we entangled the madman in the net, you saw nine corpses on that floor, besides the wounded, and among them the bodies of Danveld, Brother Gotfryd, von Bracht, and Hug, and two noble youths... God grant them eternal rest. Amen!

— Amen! Amen! — the novices repeated.

— And say also, — added Zygfryd, — that although Danveld wanted to suppress an enemy of the Zakon, no one here drew a sword on Jurand first.

— I will speak only of what my eyes have seen, — replied de Bergow.

— And before midnight, be in the chapel, where we too shall come to pray for the souls of the dead, — replied Zygfryd.

He extended his hand to him, both as a sign of thanks and farewell, for he wished to continue the council only with Brother Rotgier, whom he loved and trusted greatly. And so, after de Bergow left, he also dismissed the two novices on the pretext that they should supervise the making of coffins for the common hirelings killed by Jurand. When the door closed behind them, he turned quickly to Rotgier and said:

— Listen to what I tell you: there is only one remedy—that no living soul ever learn that the real Jurandówna was here with us.

— That will not be difficult, — replied Rotgier, — for no one knew she was here except Danveld, Gotfryd, the two of us, and that lay sister who watches over her. The men who brought her from the Forest Station, Danveld had plied with drink and then hanged. There were some among the garrison who suspected something, but that half-wit muddled their heads, and now they themselves do not know whether we made a mistake or whether some sorcerer truly transformed Jurandówna.

— That is good, — said Zygfryd.

— For my part, noble Komtur, I was thinking whether, since Danveld is dead, we might not lay all the blame on him...

— And confess to the whole world that during peace and under treaties with the Prince of Masovia, we kidnapped from his court the duchess's ward and her favorite lady-in-waiting? No, by God! That cannot be! At court, we were seen together with Danveld, and the Grand Hospitaler, his kinsman, knows that we always undertook everything together... If we accuse Danveld, he will want to avenge his memory...

— Let us deliberate on this, — said Rotgier.

— Let us deliberate and find good counsel, for otherwise woe to us! If we return Jurandówna, she herself will say that we did not take her from bandits, but that the men who seized her brought her straight to Szczytno.

— That is true.

— And God is my witness, it is not only about responsibility that I care. The Prince will complain to the Polish king, and their envoys will not fail to cry out at all courts about our violence, our treachery, our crime. God alone knows how much harm this may cause the Zakon. Even the Grand Master, if he knew the truth, would order the girl hidden.

— And even if she disappears, won't they still accuse us? — asked Rotgier.

— No! Brother Danveld was a cunning man. Do you remember that he imposed a condition on Jurand: that not only should he present himself at Szczytno, but that beforehand he should announce and write to the Prince that he was going to ransom his daughter from bandits, and that he knew she was not with us.

— True, but in that case how will we justify what happened in Szczytno?

— We shall say that, knowing Jurand was searching for his child, and having taken from bandits some girl who could not say who she was, we informed Jurand, thinking she might be his daughter. He came, and upon seeing the girl, was seized by madness, and possessed by an evil spirit, spilled so much innocent blood that not even many a battle costs more.

— Truly, — answered Rotgier, — wisdom and the experience of age speak through you. Danveld's evil deeds, even if we laid the blame solely on him, would always be charged to the Zakon, and thus to all of us, the Chapter, and the Grand Master himself. But in this way our innocence will be shown, and everything will fall on Jurand, on Polish malice, and on their alliances with infernal powers.

— And then let whoever wants judge us: the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor!

— Yes!

A moment of silence followed, then Brother Rotgier asked: — So what shall we do with Jurandówna?

— Let us deliberate.

— Give her to me.

Zygfryd looked at him and answered: — No! Listen, young brother! When the Zakon is at stake, show no indulgence to man or woman, but also show no indulgence to yourself. God's hand has reached Danveld, because he wanted not only to avenge the Zakon's wrongs but also to satisfy his own lusts.

— You judge me wrongly! — said Rotgier.

— Do not indulge yourselves, — Zygfryd interrupted him, — for your bodies and souls will grow soft, and the knee of that hard race will one day press down on your breast so that you shall never rise again.

And for the third time he rested his gloomy head on his hand, but clearly he was speaking only to his own conscience and thinking only of himself, for after a moment he said: — Much human blood weighs on me too, much pain, many tears... And I, when the Zakon was at stake and when I saw that mere force would not suffice, did not hesitate to seek other means. But when I stand before the Lord, I shall say to Him: 'This I did for the Zakon, and for myself — this is what I chose!'

And having said this, he parted with his hands the dark woolen garment on his chest, revealing a hairshirt beneath.

Then he clutched his temples with his hands, raised his head and eyes upward, and cried: — Renounce pleasure and debauchery, harden your bodies and hearts, for behold I see the whiteness of eagle feathers in the air and the talons of the eagle, red with Krzyżak blood...

His further words were cut short by a blast of wind so terrible that one window high above the gallery flew open with a crash, and the entire hall filled with the howling and whistling of the blizzard, and with snowflakes.

— In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! This is an evil night, — said the old Krzyżak.

— A night of unclean powers, — replied Rotgier.

— And are the priests still by Danveld's body?

— They are.

— He departed without absolution... God, be merciful to him...

Both fell silent. Then Rotgier summoned the servants, ordered them to close the window and brighten the torches, and when they had gone, he asked again: — What will you do with Jurandówna? Will you take her from here to Innsbruck?

— I will take her to Innsbruck and do with her what the good of the Zakon requires.

— And what am I to do?

— Do you have courage in your soul?

— What have I done that you should doubt it?

— I do not doubt, for I know you, and for your valor I love you like a son. So go to the court of the Prince of Masovia and tell him everything that happened here, just as we have agreed between ourselves.

— Can I risk certain destruction?

— If your destruction brings glory to the Cross and the Zakon, then you should. But no! Destruction does not await you. They do not harm a guest—unless someone should challenge you, as did the young knight who challenged all of us... He, or someone else, but that is not frightening...

— God grant it! Yet they might seize me and throw me into the dungeons.

— They will not do that. Remember that there is Jurand's letter to the Prince, and you will also go to complain about Jurand. You will faithfully relate what he did in Szczytno, and they must believe you... After all, we were the first to inform him that there was some girl, the first to invite him to come and see her, and he arrived, went mad, killed the Komtur, and wiped out our men. That is what you will say, and what can they reply? Danveld's death will be known throughout all Masovia. In view of that, they will abandon their complaints. They will of course search for Jurandówna, but since Jurand himself wrote that she is not with us, the suspicion will not fall on us. We must make up for it with courage and shut their mouths, for they will also think that if we were guilty, none of us would dare to come.

— True. After Danveld's funeral, I will set out immediately.

— May God bless you, my son! When we do everything as it should be, not only will they not detain you, but they must disown Jurand, so that we cannot say: 'See how they treat us!'

— And thus we must complain at all courts.

— The Grand Hospitaler will see to that, both for the good of the Zakon and as Danveld's kinsman.

— But what if that devil of Spychow survives and regains his freedom...

Zygfryd began to stare gloomily ahead, then answered slowly and deliberately: — Even if he regains his freedom, he will never utter a single word of complaint against the Zakon.

Then he began to further instruct Rotgier on what to say and what to demand at the Masovian court.