"If the queen will promise to say one word in his favor, not a hair will
fall from his head," said Anna Danuta; "the king worships her for her
piety and for her dowry, and especially now, when the shame of sterility
has been taken from her. But the king's beloved sister, Princess Ziemowit
lives in Krakow; you must go to her. For my part I will do anything I
can; but the princess is his own sister, and I am only his first cousin."

"The king loves you also, gracious lady."

"Ej, but not as much," she answered with a certain sadness; "for me a
link, for her a whole chain; for me a fox skin, for her a sable. He loves
none of his relations as dearly as he loves Alexandra."

Thus talking, they approached Krakow. The highway which was crowded on
the road from Tyniec, was still more crowded here. They met countrymen
going with their servants to the city, sometimes armed and sometimes in
summer clothing and straw hats. Some of them were on horseback; some
traveled in carriages, with their wives and daughters, who wished to see
the long looked for tournaments. In some places the whole road was
crowded with merchants' wagons which could not pass Krakow until the toll
was paid. They carried in these wagons wax, grain, salt, fish, skins,
hemp and wood. Others came from the city loaded with cloth, barrels of
beer and different merchandise. One could now see Krakow very well; the
king's gardens, lords' and burghers' houses surrounded the city; beyond
them were the walls and the towers of the churches. The nearer they came
to the city the greater was the traffic and at the gates it was almost
impossible to pass.

"What a city! There is no other like it in the world," said Macko.