"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.
"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!"
But at that moment the same monk who had been there before entered the inn, and with him two superior ones. The servants of the monastery carried willow baskets which contained bottles of wine and some tidbits. The monks greeted the princess and again reproached her because she had not gone directly to the abbey. She explained to them again, that having slept during the day, she was traveling at night for coolness; therefore she did not need any sleep; and as she did not wish to awaken the worthy abbot nor the respectable monks, she preferred to stop in an inn to stretch her limbs.