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244 drums, and the horsemen and footmen moved forward like a great river. Nothing could stop them. The enchanted swords cut down the Tzar's men like grain and the gleaming spears pierced through their armor, so that soon all his army was in flight. The Tzar himself was caught between the two forces, dashed from his horse and trampled to death in an instant.

Then the archer called together his host, while the Ministers and Boyars, terror-stricken, besought him to spare their lives and rule the Tzardom. He consented and marching to the tower, brought his wife in all honor to the Palace, where, when all had kissed her hand as their Tzaritza, he ordered a great festival. For three weeks the whole realm feasted till the royal bins were empty and the cellars ran dry, while the host encamped round about the capital and the ships of war flocked under its walls.

On the twenty-first night, at midnight, Taraban went to his chamber, turned upside-down the earthen bowl, blew into the golden horn and closed the casket, and at the same moment the sea receded, the great host and the fleet of warships vanished, and all was as before.

So Taraban the archer began his reign, and his