In a moment Zbyszko's eyes were shining and the veins on his forehead swelled.
"Then the Germans killed her mother?" he asked.
"Killed and not killed. She died from fear. Five years ago there was peace; nobody was thinking about war and everybody felt safe. The prince went without any soldiers, only with the court, as usual during peace, to build a tower in Zlotorja. Those traitors, the Germans, fell upon them without any declaration of war, without any reason. They seized the prince himself, and remembering neither God's anger, nor that from the prince's ancestor, they had received great benefits, they bound him to a horse and slaughtered his people. The prince was a prisoner a long time, and only when King Wladyslaw threatened them with war, did they release him. During this attack Danusia's mother died."
"And you, sir, were you there? What do they call you? I have forgotten!"
"My name is Mikolaj of Dlugolas and they call me Obuch.[19] I was there. I saw a German with peacock feathers on his helmet, bind her to his saddle; and then she died from fear. They cut me with a halberd from which I have a scar."
Having said this he showed a deep scar on his head coming from beneath his hair to his eyebrows.
There was a moment of silence. Zbyszko was again looking at Danusia. Then he asked:
"And you said, sir, that she has no knight?"
But he did not receive any answer, because at that moment the singing stopped. One of the rybalts, a fat and heavy man, suddenly rose, and the bench tilted to one side. Danusia tottered and stretched out her little hands, but before she could fall or jump, Zbyszko rushed up like a wild-cat and seized her in his arms.
The princess, who at first screamed from fear, laughed immediately and began to shout: