Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/64

 "Welcome, my dear children, Is it well with the Serbian knights, And with the noble Tsar and King?" The envoys bowed the head in reverence: "Lord Marko Kraljevitch! In health all are well but they are not accorded together; Our lords have quarrelled bitterly together, On the wide Kossovo plain, By the white church of Samodreža. They dispute together concerning the succession, And fain would each slay other. Fain would each thrust other through with golden dagger, For they know not which should obtain the empire. They summon thee to Kossovo plain To tell them who is heir to the empire." Marko entered his lordly manor, And called Jevrosima his mother: "Jevrosima, my dear mother, Our princes have quarrelled, On the wide Kossovo plain, By the white church of Samodreža. They dispute together concerning the succession, And fain would each slay other. Fain would each thrust other through with golden dagger, For they know not which should obtain the empire. They summon me to Kossovo plain, To tell them who is heir to the empire." Now although Marko sought ever to do the truth, Yet did his mother, Jevrosima, exhort him! "Marko—only son of thy mother, If the milk wherewith I nourished thee is not to be accursed, Do not thou bear false witness, To pleasure either thy father or thy uncles, But speak according to the judgment of the true God; Lose not thy soul, my son; Better it is to lose thy head, Than to sin against thy soul."