Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/164

 Lightly she leapt to her feet, And seized pen and paper. She struck the pen into her face, She drew blood from her cheek, And wrote a letter to Marko: "Brother-in-God, Kraljević Marko, I call on thee as my brother-in-God, And as my kum in God, And in thine own Saint John, Give me not over to the black Arab, And thou shalt have seven charges of gold, And a sevenfold present, Not of things woven or spun, Nor such as passeth through the weaver's loom, But thy gifts shall be wrought of fine gold, And I shall give thee a golden salver, Whereon a twisted snake Lifteth up his head on high, Holding in his teeth a precious stone, That shineth so as ye may sup by night As it were by the light of day. And I shall give thee a well-wrought sabre, That hath a threefold hilt of gold, Wherein be three precious stones. The sabre is worth three of the Sultan's cities, And I shall affix the Sultan's seal, That the Vizier's self may not slay thee Without he obtain permission of the illustrious Sultan." She sent a courier with the letter to Marko. When the letter came to Marko, And he saw what the letter told him, Forthwith Marko spake and said: "Woe is me, my sister-in-God! It were ill to go, and worse not to go, For though I fear not Sultan nor Sultana,