"Then in Tyniec, the abbot will absolve you from this vow also. The abbot
is greater than a hermit."

"I don't want absolution!"

Macko stopped and asked with evident anger:

"Then how will it be?"

"Go to Witold yourself, because I shall not go."

"You knave! And who will bow to the king? Don't you pity my bones?"

"Even if a tree should fall on your bones, it would not crush them; and
even if I pity you, I will not go to Witold."

"What will you do then? Will you turn _rybalt_ or falconer at the
Mazowiecki court?"

"It's not a bad thing to be a falconer. But if you would rather grumble
than to listen to me, then grumble."

"Where will you go? Don't you care for Bogdaniec? Will you plow with your
nails without peasants?"

"Not true! You calculated cleverly about the Tartars! You have forgotten
what the Rusini[21] told us, that it is difficult to catch any prisoners
among the Tartars, because you cannot reach a Tartar on the steppes. On
what will I chase them? On those heavy stallions that we captured from
the Germans? Do you see? And what booty can I take? Scabby sheep-skin