CHAPTER VI.
The next day Yurand did not avoid Zbyshko in the least, or hinder him from showing Danusia on the way various services which as a knight it was his duty to show her. On the contrary, Zbyshko, though greatly mortified, noticed that the gloomy lord of Spyhov looked at him in a friendly manner, and, as it were, with sorrow because he had been forced to give such a cruel answer. The young man tried more than once, therefore, to approach him and begin conversation. About an hour's journey from Cracow it was not difficult to find an opportunity, for both accompanied the princess on horseback. Yurand, though usually silent, spoke willingly enough; but when Zbyshko wished to learn something of the secret hindrances separating him from Danusia, conversation stopped on a sudden. Yurand's face became cloudy; he looked unquietly at Zbyshko, as if fearing to betray himself in something. Zbyshko thought that the princess knew facts; so, selecting a favorable moment, he tried to obtain information from her; but neither could she explain much to him.
"There is a secret,'* said she. "Yurand himself told me this; but he begged me at the same time not to ask him, for he is not only unwilling but unable to tell it. Doubtless he is bound by some oath, as happens among people. God grant, however, that in time all this will explain itself."
"Without Danusia I should be in this world like a dog on a leash, or a bear in a pit. No delight of any kind, no pleasure. Nothing beyond disappointment and sighing. I would go now with Prince Vitold to Tavan, and let the Tartars there kill me. But I must take my uncle home to begin with, and then snatch those peacock-plumes from the heads of the Germans, as I have sworn. Mayhap they will kill me while doing so; I should rather die than see another man taking Danusia."
The princess raised her kindly blue eyes on him, and inquired, with a certain astonishment,—
"And thou wouldst not permit that?"
"That will not be, while there is breath in my nostrils! Unless my hand were to wither, and be without power to hold an axe!"
