Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/199

 And when they were come to Kraljević Marko, Behold, Marko sat in his tent drinking, And before him was a tankard of twelve okas. Unto him the two messengers spake, saying: "Hearken unto us, Kraljević Marko! The Sultan biddeth thee to the Divan, In the Divan must thou appear before him." Therewithal Marko waxed passing wroth, He seized the tankard with the wine therein, And smote the Sultan's messengers, That their heads brast and the tankard also, And blood and wine were mingled together! To the Sultan's Divan went Marko, And sate him down by the right knee of the Sultan. His cap of sable he pulled down over his eyes, His mace he kept fondling ever, And his sabre he laid across his knees. And Sultan Suleiman spake to him: "My son, Kraljević Marko! I did let cry an order, That none should drink wine in Ramadan, That none should wear green apparel, That none should bear a sword, That none should dance with women in the kolo. Yet there are that say ill of thee, Marko, And bear false witness against thee, That thou dancest with women in the kolo, That thou bearest thy sabre, That thou goest garbed in green apparel, That thou drinkest wine in Ramadan, And further thou constrainest hodjas and hadjis, That they should drink wine with thee! And wherefore now hast thou pulled thy kalpak over thine eyes? Wherefore dost thou toy with thy mace? Wherefore is thy sabre laid across thy knees?"