Page:Poet Lore, volume 34, 1923.djvu/34

 chain; and Queen Runa, thy mother, was with them, and railed at the silent Radúz, and told him that he would be fettered to a rocky crag of the mountain, which, they say, towers even to the sky.

Mahulena.—Each word thou sayest pierces my heart like a spear! It were better if he still lay in the tower! But no, that was worse; there he was in eternal darkness like a blind man!

Vratko.—Yet he was not forsaken as now, maiden. Then I often crept about the tower by night and tried to call words of comfort to him into the darkness And I know that another face, as serene as the heavens, has at times pressed lovingly against the narrow window of his prison! And he himself has told me that three golden hairs from the head most dear to him beneath the sun were caught on the lattice of his window and shone for him like moonbeams into the damp twilight of his dungeon cell.

Mahulena.—He said that—did he say that?

Vratko.—Indeed he sang of it. I heard his song; it rose from the depths and resounded through the silent night like a leaf borne by the wind! Poor Radúz, fair-haired prince! He survived the darkness, and now suffers other tortures!

Mahulena.—So thy father saw him—saw him, thou sayest—?

Vratko.—He saw the direction which they were taking with Radúz, though I know not for sure whither they led him. Perhaps thou wilt discover that thyself. And but one thing I know further, that they have bound an iron belt around his waist and from this hangs a chain, which they have forged into the crag. And the iron of the belt and chain is enchanted; it has this property, that no sword, no hammer, and no file can touch it; and the iron belt is locked with a key. All this the queen triumphantly proclaimed in mockery to Radúz along the way. My father heard it.

Mahulena.—O, woe, woe! Chained like a wolf! And he suffers heat and cold and rain! The lightning may smite him; the wild beasts of the forest may tear him in pieces! Vratko, why are hearts in this world made of stone?

Vratko.—There are others too, such as thine; and through this are all men saved.

Mahulena.—How shall I save him, how? In which direction sayest thou that they led him?

Vratko.—Toward the east, where the mountains rise the highest. But this is not yet all that I can tell thee.