CHAPTER XIII.
Zbyshko, when he had overtaken Zyh and Yagenka, who were riding in company with the abbot and his clerics, joined them, and they rode together to the church; for with him the question was to show the abbot that he had no fear of Vilk or Stan, and did not think of hiding before them. From the first moment he was astonished again at the beauty of Yagenka, for though he had seen her more than once at her father's house, and in Bogdanets dressed beautifully to appear among, guests, he had never seen her arrayed for church as at present. She wore a robe of red cloth, lined with ermine, red gloves, and a gold-trimmed ermine hood, from under which two braids of hair dropped on her shoulders. She was not sitting on the horse man-fashion, but on a lofty saddle with a handle, and with a bench beneath her feet, which were barely visible under the long petticoat plated in even folds. For Zyh, who permitted the girl to wear at home a skin coat and boots of cowhide, was anxious that in front of the church every one should know that not the daughter of some gray-coated landowner, or patented noble had come, but a young lady of a rich, knightly house. With this object, her horse was led by two youths whose lower garments were close-fitting, and the upper ones wide, as was usual with pages. Four house attendants rode behind, and near them the abbot's clerics, with swords and lutes at their girdles.
Zbyshko admired the whole company greatly, above all Yagenka, who looked like an image, and the abbot, who, in red and with immense sleeves to his robe, seemed to him like some prince on a journey. Attired most plainly of all was Zyh, who desired ostentation in others, but for himself only gladness and singing.
When Zbyshko came up, they rode on in a line, the abbot, Yagenka, Zbyshko, and Zyh. The abbot at first commanded his "playmen" to sing pious hymns, only later, when he had listened sufficiently, did he begin to talk with Zbyshko, who looked with a smile at his mighty sword, which was not smaller than the two-handed blades of the Germans.
