Page:Adama Mickiewicza Konrad Wallenrod i Grazyna.djvu/20

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KONRAD WALLENROD.

nia, as if to embrace all Palemon's inheritance.

On the one side, crowds of Lithuanian youths, clothed with the skins of bears and lynxes, the bow in one hand and a ready arrow in the other, appeared from time to time watching the movements of the Teutons. On the other side, stood a statue-like German on horse-back, in armour and helmet; fixing his eyes on the group of his foes, he charged his gun and counted his rosary.

Both alike were guarding the passage. Thus the once hospitable river that watered the fields of two brotherly nations, was now for them the threshold to eternity; and none could, with out loss of life or liberty, cross the forbidden waters. A branch of Lithuanian hop, allured, by the charms of a Prussian poplar, creeping on willows and aqueous plants, alone extended its arms boldly as before, and, crossing the river in a charming festoon, went to unite itself to its lover on hostile ground: