Zbyszko looked at his uncle and said:
"What else can it be, if not love? I have pain in my heart; but I will ride on horseback for a while, that will help me."
He got down from the wagon, and mounted the horse, which his servant brought for him; meanwhile, Macko touched his sore side; but he was evidently thinking about something else and not about his illness, because he tossed his head, smacked his lips and finally said:
"I wonder and wonder, and I cannot wonder enough, why you are so eager for love, because your father was not that way, and neither am I."
But Zbyszko, instead of answering, stretched himself on the saddle, put his hands on his hips, gave his head a toss and sang:
"I cried the whole night, cried in the morning,
Where have you been, my sweet girl, my darling!
It will not help me, if I mourn for thee,
Because I am quite sure, you will not see me."
"Hej!"
This "hej" resounded in the forest, reverberated against the trunks of the trees, finally reëchoed in the far distance and then was lost in the thickets.
Again Macko felt his side, in which the German spearhead had lodged and said, moaning a little:
"Formerly the people were wiser!"