CHAPTER XXXII.
In the whole court, as well among the knighthood as the women, there was alarm because of Zbyshko, for he was loved universally. In view of Yurand's letter no one doubted that right was on the side of the German. They knew besides that Rotgier was one of the most renowned brothers of the Order. The armor-bearer Van Krist narrated, perhaps purposely, among the Mazovian nobles that his lord, before becoming an armed monk, had sat at the table of honor given by the Knights of the Cross, to which table were admitted only knights famed throughout Christendom, men who had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, or who had battled victoriously against dragons, giants, or mighty sorcerers. When the Mazovians heard these narratives of Van Krist, and also the assurances that his lord had fought frequently single-handed against five, having a misericordia in one hand and an axe or a sword in the other, they were frightened, and some said,—
"Oh, if Yurand were here he could manage two of them, no German ever escaped him; but woe to the youth! for that knight exceeds him in strength, years, and training." Others lamented that they had not taken up the gauntlet, declaring that had it not been for the tidings from Yurand they would have done so without fail—"but the fear of God's judgment." They mentioned also, when they could, and for mutual consolation, the names of Mazovian, or in general of Polish knights, who, either in court tournaments or in meetings with lances, had gained numerous victories over knights of the West. First of all, they mentioned Zavisha of Garbov, whom no knight in Christendom had equalled. But some were of good hope concerning Zbyshko also. "He is no decked-out knight," said they, "and as ye have heard he has hurled down German heads on trampled earth worthily." But their hearts were strengthened specially by Zbyshko's armor-bearer, Hlava, who, on the eve of the duel, when he heard Van Krist exalting the unheard-of victories of Rotgier, being an excitable young man, seized Van Krist by
