Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/162

 "Ho, Sultan, bring forth thy daughter;" Right so he drew his heavy mace, And beat therewith on the Sultan's palace, That he shattered the glass in the windows. And the Sultan being in sore straits, To his shame yielded his daughter to him. The Arab sate him down and spake of the wedding: "Fifteen white days will pass," quoth he, "Or I may reach the level sea-coast, And gather the gay wedding-guests." Forthwith he mounted his slender mare, And went forth to the level sea-coast For to gather the gay-clad wedding-guests. When the Sultan's daughter heard it, She hissed like an angry snake: "Dear God!" she cried, "Woe is me! For whom have I been reared and tended? For a black Arab, for to be his wife!" But when dark night was come, The Sultan's Sultana dreamed a dream, And in the dream one spake to her, saying: "There lieth within your empire The wide plain of Kossovo, And Prilep castle stands in the plain of Kossovo, And in Prilep dwells Kraljević Marko, And men praise him for a good knight of prowess. Send therefore, a letter to Marko Kraljević, Call him your son-in-the-true-God, Promise him gold out of measure If he but save your daughter from the Moor." When day dawned on the morrow, The Sultana ran to the Sultan's majesty, And told what she had dreamed in her dream. And when the Sultan understood her words, With speed he wrote a firman, And sent it to white Prilep, Even to Kraljević Marko;