Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/103

 Whomsoever Marko smote with his sabre Was made two instead of one! Whomsoever Marko smote with his spear, Him he cast over his head! And when he had turned him about once and again, The troop of horsemen went to the devil! Vuča fled from before him, On his slender Arab mare, Marko pursued after him on Sharatz. Swift was the wild Arab of Vuča And fain would Vuča take refuge in Varadin castle, But Marko swung his heavy mace, He hurled it after him athwart the fields, And smote him with the mace handle. Vuča fell down on the green grass; Then Marko of Prilep lighted down, He bound Vuča's hands behind his back, He bound his feet and his hands, And hanged him at the saddle-bow of Sharatz. He seized the slender Arab steed, And went again to Velimir the son, He bound them fast each to other, And flung them across the Arab mare; He tied the Arab mare to Sharatz, And hied him straightway to white Prilep, And cast the twain into the dungeon. Right so Vuča's wife wrote a letter, And sent it to white Prilep: "Brother-in-God, Kraljević Marko! Slay not my Vuča, Nor yet my son Velimir. Ask, Marko, whatsoever thou wilt!" The letter came to Kraljević Marko; When he perceived what the letter told him, Marko wrote another letter: "Thou faithful wife of Vuča! Do thou set free my three pobratims.