"Go to Witold yourself, because I shall not go."
"You knave! And who will bow to the king? Don't you pity my bones?"
"Even if a tree should fall on your bones, it would not crush them; and even if I pity you, I will not go to Witold."
"What will you do then? Will you turn rybalt or falconer at the
Mazowiecki court?"
"It's not a bad thing to be a falconer. But if you would rather grumble than to listen to me, then grumble."
"Where will you go? Don't you care for Bogdaniec? Will you plow with your nails without peasants?"
"Not true! You calculated cleverly about the Tartars! You have forgotten what the Rusini[21] told us, that it is difficult to catch any prisoners among the Tartars, because you cannot reach a Tartar on the steppes. On what will I chase them? On those heavy stallions that we captured from the Germans? Do you see? And what booty can I take? Scabby sheep-skin coats but nothing else! How rich then I shall return to Bogdaniec! Then they will call me comes!"
Macko was silent because there was a great deal of truth in Zbyszko's words; but after a while he said:
"But Prince Witold will reward you."
"Bah, you know; to one he gives too much, to another nothing."