"That you speak our language well. God has given you understanding in everything."
"I know your language, because the Czluchs speak Polish, and my brother and I served for seven years in those counties."
"You will in time take office after him. It cannot be otherwise, because your brother does not speak our language."
"He understands it a little, but cannot speak it. My brother is more powerful, although I am not a weakling either, but of duller wit."
"Hey! He does not seem to me dull."
"Wolfgang, what does he say?" asked Arnold again.
"He praises you," replied Wolfgang.
"True, I praised him," added Macko, "because he is a true knight, and that is the reason. I tell you frankly that I intended to let him go entirely free to-day on parole, so that he might go wherever he wished to, even if he were to present himself in a year's time. Such treatment is customary among belted knights."
Then he looked attentively into Wolfgang's face, but it was wrinkled, and he said:
"Were it not for the assistance you have given to the pagan dogs against us, I also might have let you go on parole."