Papa gave him to me as attendant, for the man said that he was a noble in his own country. I gave Hlava good armor, and sent him to attend Zbyshko, to guard him in danger, and, which God forefend!—to inform us (should anything happen). I gave him a purse for the road, and he swore to me by his soul's salvation that till his death he would serve Zbyshko faithfully."
"Oh, thou my girl! May God reward thee! But did Zyh not oppose?"
"Of course he opposed. At first he would not permit this for anything; only when I seized his feet was the victory on my side. There is no trouble with papa, but when the abbot heard of the matter from his buffoons he cursed the whole room-full in one moment, and there was such a day of judgment that papa ran out to the barns. Only in the evening did the abbot take pity on my tears, and give me besides a rosary. But I was willing to suffer, if only Zbyshko had a larger retinue."
"As God is dear to me, I know not which one I love more, Zbyshko or thee, but in every case he had a good retinue—and I gave him money too, though he did not wish to take it. Moreover, Mazovia is not beyond the sea."
Further conversation was interrupted by the barking of dogs, shouts, and the sound of brass trumpets in front of the house. When they heard these Yagenka said,—
"Papa and the abbot are coming from the hunt. Let us go to the porch, for it is better that the abbot should see you first from a distance, and not in the house on a sudden."
Then she conducted Matsko to the porch, from which they saw on the snow in the yard a crowd of men, horses, dogs; also elks and wolves pierced with spears, or with bolts shot from crossbows. The abbot, seeing Matsko before dismounting, hurled a spear toward him, not to strike, it is true, but to show in that way more definitely his resentment against the people of Bogdanets. But Matsko bowed to him from afar, cap in hand, as if he had noticed nothing. Yagenka had not observed this, for she was astonished first of all at the presence of her two suitors in the retinue.
"Stan and Vilk are there!" cried she, " they must have met papa in the forest."
And with Matsko it went so far that something seemed to prick his old wound at sight of them. It passed through his head in a flash that one of the two might get Yagenka, and with her Mochydoly, the lands of the abbot, his forests
