She seized the lute, raised her head like a bird which begins to sing,
and having closed her eyes, she began with a silvery voice:

"If I only could get
The wings like a birdie,
I would fly quickly
To my dearest Jasiek!"

The _rybalts_ accompanied her, one on the _gensliks_, the other on a big
lute; the princess, who loved the lay songs better than anything else in
the world, began to move her head back and forth, and the young girl sang
further with a thin, sweet childish voice, like a bird singing in the
forest:

"I would then be seated
On the high enclosure:
Look, my dear Jasiulku,
Look on me, poor orphan."

And then the _rybalts_ played. The young Zbyszko of Bogdaniec, who being
accustomed from childhood to war and its dreadful sights, had never in
his life heard anything like it; he touched a Mazur[17] standing beside
him and asked:

"Who is she?"

"She is a girl from the princess' court. We do not lack _rybalts_ who
cheer up the court, but she is the sweetest little _rybalt_ of them all,
and to the songs of no one else will the princess listen so gladly."