Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/160



Moor builded him a manor, He builded a manor of twenty storeys, By the wide blue sea. And when the Moor had finished his manor, He set glass in the windows thereof, And spread therein silk and velvet, And thus he spake to his manor: "Wherefore shouldst thou be desolate on the sea-coast, O manor? There be none to come and go about thee, For I have no mother nor no sisters, Nor have I yet married me; But I swear my wife shall come and go about thee, Else am I not the son of my mother, But the offspring of an Arab mare. I shall woo the Sultan's daughter, And either he shall give her to me, Or he shall come out into the field against me." Thus spake the Arab to his manor, And forthwithal he wrote a letter, And sent it to Stamboul to the Sultan: "Sire, Sultan of Stamboul! By the sea I have builded a manor, And none cometh and goeth about it, For I have not yet married me, Give me then thy daughter in marriage; But if thou wilt not give her to me, Come out into the field against me." The letter came to the illustrious Sultan; When he perceived what the letter told him, He let seek knights of prowess, And he promised gold out of measure To whomsoever should slay the black Arab. And there went forth hardy knights a many,