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"Uncle Gamroth, don't interrupt the knight," said the second merchant.
"I'm not. I just think that he will be glad to know what people are talking about because I am sure he is going to Krakow. We cannot return to the city today at any rate because they will shut the gates by the time we get there."
"And you say twenty words, in reply to one. You are getting old, Uncle Gamroth!"
"But I can carry a whole bale of wet broadcloth just the same."
"Big deal! The cloth through which one can see, as through a sieve."
But the knight interrupted further dispute. "Yes, I will stay in Krakow because I have heard about the tournaments, and I will be glad to try my strength on the field; and my nephew, who, although young and smooth-faced, has already seen more than on armor on the ground at his feet."
The guests glanced at the youth, who smiled and, putting his long hair behind his ears, raised the mug of beer to his mouth.
The older knight added: "Even if we wanted to, we have no place to return to."
"How is that?" asked one of the nobles. "Where are you from, and what do they call you?"
"I am Macko of Bogdaniec, and this lad, the son of my brother, calls himself Zbyszko. Our coat of arms is Dull Horseshoe, and our battle cry is Grady!"
"Where is Bogdaniec?"
"Hah! You better ask, my friend, where it was, because it is no more. During the last war, Bogdaniec was burned to the ground, we were robbed of everything, and the servants ran away. Only the bare soil remained because even the farmers who were in the neighborhood fled into the forests. We, me and my brother, the father of this lad, rebuilt it; but next year, a flood took everything. Then my brother died, and after his death, I remained with the orphan. Then I thought: 'I can't stay!' I heard about the war for which King Vladislaus sent Jasko of Olesnica to recruit knights and foot soldiers in Poland while Mikolaj of Moskorzowo was sent to Vilnius for the same purpose. I knew a worthy abbot, Janko of Tulcza, to whom I gave my land as security for the money I needed to buy armor and horses, necessary for a war expedition. I put the boy, twelve years old at that time, on a young horse, and we went to find Jasko of Olesnica."
"With the teenager?"
"He was not even a teen then, but he has been strong since childhood.
