"Because I was ashamed. I thought they would challenge me, as it is customary for knights to do, to fight on horseback or on foot; but they are bandits, not knights. Wilk first took a board from the table, Cztan seized another and they both rushed against me! What could I do? I seized a bench; well--you know!" "Are they still alive?" asked Macko. "Yes, they are alive, but they were hurt. They breathed when I left." The abbot, rubbing his forehead, listened; then he suddenly jumped from the chest, on which he had seated himself to be more comfortable and to think the matter over, and exclaimed: "Wait! I want to tell you something!" "What?" asked Zbyszko. "If you fought for Jagienka and injured them for her sake, then you are really her knight, not Danusia's; and you must take Jagienka." Having said this, he put his hands on his hips and looked at Zbyszko triumphantly; but Zbyszko smiled and said: "Hej! I knew very well why you wanted me to fight with them; but you have not succeeded in your plans." "Why? Speak!" "Because I challenged them to deny that Danusia Jurandowna is the prettiest and the most virtuous girl in the world; they took Jagienka's part, and that is why there was a fight." Having heard this, the abbot stood amazed, and only the frequent movement of his eyes indicated that he was still alive. Finally he turned, opened the door with his foot, and rushed into the other room; there he seized the curved stick from the pilgrim's hands and began to strike the _shpilmen_ with it, roaring like a wounded urus. "To horse, you rascals! To horse, you dog-faiths! I will not put my foot in this house again! To horse, he who believes in God, to horse!" Then he opened the outer door and went into the court-yard, followed by the frightened seminarists. They rushed to the stable and began to saddle the horses. In vain Macko followed the abbot, and entreated him to remain; swore that it was not his fault. The abbot cursed the house, the people and the fields; when they brought him a horse, he jumped in the saddle without touching the stirrups and galloped away looking, with his large sleeves filled by the wind, like an enormous red bird. The seminarists rushed after him, like a herd following its leader. Macko stood looking after them for some time; but when they disappeared in the forest, he returned slowly to the room and said to Zbyszko, shaking his head sadly: "See what you have done?" "It would not have happened if I had gone away; and it is your fault that I did not." "Why?" "Because I did not wish to leave you when you were sick." "And what will you do now?" "Now I shall go." "Where?" "To Mazowsze to see Danusia; and after that to search for peacock's tufts among the Germans." Macko was silent for a moment, then he said: "He returned the 'letter,' but the mortgage is recorded in the mortgage-book at the court. Now the abbot will not give us even a _skojec_."