This news disturbed the good understanding between the prince and his guests, because not only the two newly arrived brothers but also Hugo von Danveld and Zygfried von Löve, began to beseech the prince to render justice to the Order, to free the boundaries from the plunderer and to punish him once for all his offences. Hugo von Danveld, having his own grievance against Jurand, the remembrance of which burned him with shame and grief, asked for vengeance almost threateningly.
"The complaint will go to the grand master," he said; "and if we be not able to get justice from Your Grace, he will obtain it himself, even if the whole Mazowsze help that robber."
But the prince, although naturally good-tempered, became angry and said.
"What kind of justice do you ask for? If Jurand had attacked you first, then I would surely punish him. But your people were the first to commence hostilities. Your starosta gave the knechts, permission to go on that expedition. Jurand only accepted the challenge and asked that the soldiers be sent away. Shall I punish him for that? You attacked that dreadful man, of whom everybody is afraid, and voluntarily brought calamity upon yourselves--what do you want then? Shall I order him not to defend himself, when it pleases you to attack him?"
"It was not the Order that attacked him, but its guests, foreign knights," answered Hugo.
"The Order is responsible for its guests, and then the knechts, from the Lubowski garrison were there."
"Could the starosta allow his guests to be slaughtered?"
Here the prince turned to Zygfried and said.
"You must take heed lest your wiles offend God."
But the stern Zygfried answered: "Heir von Bergow must be released from captivity, because the men of his family were high dignitaries in the Order and they rendered important services to the Cross."
"And Meineger's death must be avenged," added Hugo von Danveld.
Thereupon the prince arose and walked threateningly toward the Germans; but after a while, evidently having remembered that they were his guests, he restrained his anger, put his hand on Zygfried's shoulder, and said: "Listen: you wear a cross on your mantle, therefore answer according to your conscience--upon that cross! Was Jurand right or was he not?"
"Herr von Bergow must be released from prison," answered Zygfried von Löve.
There was as a moment of silence; then the prince said: "God grant me patience!"
Zygfried continued sharply, his words cutting like a sword: "The wrong which was done to us in the persons of our guests, is only one more occasion for complaint. From the time the Order was founded, neither in Palestine, nor in Siedmiogrod,[103] nor among the heathenish Litwa, has any man wronged us so much as that robber from Spychow. Your Highness! we ask for justice and vengeance not for one wrong, but for thousands; not for the blood shed once, but for years of such deeds, for which fire from heaven ought to burn that nest of wickedness and cruelty. Whose moanings entreat God for vengeance? Ours! Whose tears? Ours! We have complained in vain. Justice has never been given us!"