"How do you feel?" asked Löve.
"I do not feel any pain, but neither can I feel my hand," answered
Danveld.
"Because it has grown stiff already; that is why you do not feel any pain. It will come back in a warm room. In the meanwhile, thank God even for a moment of relief."
Rotgier and Godfried approached the wagon.
"What a misfortune!" said the first. "What shall we do now?"
"We will declare," said Danveld in a feeble voice, "that the shield-bearer murdered de Fourcy."
"It is their latest crime and the culprit is known!" added Rotgier.
CHAPTER VII
In the meanwhile, the Czech rushed as fast as he could to the prince's hunting residence, and finding the prince still there, he told him first, what had happened. Happily there were some courtiers who had seen the shield-bearer go without any arms. One of them had even shouted after him, half in jest, to take some old iron, because otherwise the Germans would get the best of him; but he, fearing that the knights would pass the frontier, jumped on horseback as he stood, in a sheepskin overcoat only and hurried after them. These testimonies dispelled all possible doubts from the prince's mind as to the fact who had murdered de Fourcy; but they filled him with uneasiness and with such anger, that at first he wanted to pursue the Knights of the Cross, capture them and send them to the grand master in chains. After a while, however, he came to the conclusion, that it was impossible to reach them on this side of the boundary and he said:
"I will send, instead, a letter to the grand master, so that he may know what they are doing here. God will punish them for it!"