Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/39

 Yet in the event he again reveals his better self, for in his heart he cannot justify the act by reference to a prevailing code, and the redeeming feature is that he suffers bitter remorse, confesses he has done evil and strives by good works to atone for his crime.

The worst that can be said of Marko has now been said. Although Vukašin lamented his wilfulness, one of Marko's outstanding characteristics is filial devotion. When his father pursues him with murderous intent, the hero flees from before him because he holds that it were unseemly for son to contend with father, and, at a later date, when by chance he meets the Turk who slew Vukašin at the Marica river, Marko exacts fitting vengeance. It is in his relations with his mother, however, that his dutifulness as a son is most strikingly apparent. For her he cherishes an unbounded reverence and love. He constantly seeks her advice and follows it even when it runs counter to all his own natural instincts and desires.

His transparent honesty and high moral courage are conpicuous in the fine poem of Uroš and the Mrnjavčevići, when he brushes temptation aside, and, unmindful of consequences to himself, speaks out the truth that is in him.

Essential simplicity and goodness of heart are equally apparent when he rebukes Beg Kostadin for snobbery and unfilial conduct, and upholds the cause of the poor and the unfortunate. Like Robin Hood, with whom he has many points of resemblance, he is ever the friend of the poor and the champion of the oppressed. When the Sultan offers him the post of tax-gatherer with the assurance that great wealth is thus to be obtained, Marko declines the offer on the ground that the poor would curse him. He rescues the distressed damsel from the twelve Moors, and after plying his sabre to such purpose that "of twelve Moors he made twenty-four," he escorts her safely to his own manor where he