Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/75

 Miloš and Relja answered him: "We would have ado with Bogdan alone." Marko had joy of that word, And in the same hour Bogdan made onset. Marko drew his heavy mace, And drave the twelve Vojvodas before him. He turned him about once and again, And lo, he had stricken all twelve from their horses! Right so he bound their hands, And drave them round the vineyard. And behold there was the Perilous Knight, Driving tofore him Relja and Miloš, And the hands of both he had bound. And when Marko saw it, He was afeared as never before, And he began to look whither he should flee. But on a sudden him remembered, How each had sworn to other, That if one should be in straits, The others should come to his aid and comfort. So he drew tight the reins of Sharatz; He pulled down his sable kalpak on his forehead, Until the fur made one with his eyebrows. Then he drew his well-wrought sabre, And looked darkly upon Bogdan; Bogdan stood still by the vineyard, But when he saw the black eyes of Marko, And saw what was writ therein, His legs were as palsied under him. Marko looked at the Perilous Bogdan, Bogdan looked at Kraljević Marko, But neither would have ado with other. At the last Bogdan spake and said: "Come, Marko, let us leave this even hand. Loose thou my twelve Vojvodas, That I may loose unto thee Relja and Miloš." Of that word Marko had great joy,