CHAPTER XXI.
Three days later came the promised woman with the Hercynian balsam, and with her a captain of bowmen from Schytno bearing a letter signed by the brothers, and furnished with Danveld's seal. In this letter the Knights of the Cross called heaven and earth to witness the wrongs which had met them in Mazovia; and under threat of God's vengeance demanded punishment for the murder of their "guest and dear comrade." Danveld had added to the letter a complaint of his own, demanding, in words both humble and menacing, payment for the grievous maiming of himself, and a sentence of death against Hlava.
The prince tore the letter before the eyes of the captain, threw it under his feet, and said,—
"The Master sent them, oh, their crusading mothers, to gain my good-will, but they have brought me to anger. Tell them from me that they slew the guest themselves, and tried to slay the Cheh; of this I shall write to the Master, and I shall add also that he is to choose other envoys if he wishes me to be neutral when war comes between the Order and the king at Cracow."
"Gracious lord," replied the captain, "is that the only answer that I am to take to the pious and mighty brotherhood?"
"If that is not enough, say that I look on them as dog brothers, and not as real knights."
This ended the audience. The captain rode away, for the prince went that day to Tsehanov. But the "sister" remained with the balsam, which the suspicious Father Vyshonek would not use, especially as the sick man had slept soundly the night before, and woke in the morning weakened greatly, it is true, but without fever. After the prince's departure the sister sent back one of her servants immediately, as if for a new remedy, a "basilisk's egg," which, as she declared, had power to restore strength even to the dying. She went herself along the court submissively, and without the use of one hand, in a lay dress,—but one resembling that of a religious,—with a rosary, and a small pilgrim gourd at her girdle. Speaking Polish well, she inquired
