“It was the afternoon of the end of February, the summer of the Lord 1564. The snow on the mountains had already melted from the life-giving rays of the sun, and the Sava River, swollen from the influx of mountain waters, rushed more and more rapidly, spreading widely across the plain near the Sused castle. In a small room of the castle, by a high window, sat an elderly but still strong woman, all in black. If her blond graying hair were not combed on both sides of a high, convex forehead, then one would think that we have a man’s head in front of us: a large face with a heavy jaw, a long, downturned nose, a wide mouth with pale thin lips ... "