"I promise that as soon as I reach Krakow, I will hang my spear on the door of the inn, and on it I will put a card, which a student in writing will write for me. On the card I will proclaim that Panna Danuta Jurandowna is the prettiest and most virtuous girl among all living in this or any other kingdom. Anyone who wishes to contradict this declaration, I will fight until one of us dies or is taken into captivity." "Very well! I see you know the knightly custom. And what more?" "I have learned from Pan Mikolaj of Dlugolas that the death of Panna Jurandowna's mother was caused by the brutality of a German who wore the crest of a peacock. Therefore I vow to gird my naked sides with a hempen rope, and even though it eat me to the bone, I will wear it until I tear three such tufts of feathers from the heads of German warriors whom I kill." Here the princess became serious. "Don't make any joke of your vows!" And Zbyszko added: "So help me God and holy cross, this vow I will repeat in church before a priest." "It is a praiseworthy thing to fight against the enemy of our people; but I pity you, because you are young, and you can easily perish." At that moment Macko of Bogdanice approached, thinking it proper to reassure the princess. "Gracious lady, do not be frightened about that. Everybody must risk being killed in a fight, and it is a laudable end for a _wlodyka_, old or young. But war is not new nor strange to this man, because although he is only a youth, he has fought on horseback and on foot, with spear and with axe, with short sword and with long sword, with lance and without. It is a new custom, for a knight to vow to a girl whom he sees for the first time; but I do not blame Zbyszko for his promise. He has fought the Germans before. Let him fight them again, and if during that fight a few heads are broken, his glory will increase." "I see that we have to do with a gallant knight," said the princess. Then to Danusia, she said: "Take my place as the first person to-day; only do not laugh because it is not dignified." Danusia sat in the place of the lady; she wanted to be dignified, but her blue eyes were laughing at the kneeling Zbyszko, and she could not help moving her feet from joy. "Give him your gloves," said the princess. Danusia pulled off her gloves and handed them to Zbyszko who pressed them with great respect to his lips, and said: "I will fix them on my helmet and woe to the one who stretches his hands for them!" Then he kissed Danusia's hands and feet and arose. Then his dignity left him, and great joy filled his heart because from that time the whole court would consider him a mature man. Therefore shaking Danusia's gloves, he began to shout, half mirthfully, half angrily: "Come, you dog-brothers with peacock's crests, come!"