Page:The Queens Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems, 1852, Cambridge edition.djvu/62

 The warriors rush’d with wrath inflam’d,
 * The castle to assail,

At the bidding of Czestmir, their leader bold,
 * Like the clouds that bear the hail.

The foremost are shelter’d by their shields,
 * With shield on shield rais’d high,

The hindmost lean upon their spears,
 * And on trees that crosswise lie;

And higher than the high tree-tops
 * Round the castle clash their brands,

And rage against the swords that wave
 * In the defender’s hands.

On the castle Kruvoi roar’d aloud
 * With the roaring of a bull,

Roar’d loudly, till his people’s hearts
 * Of valour all were full.

His sword upon the men of Prague
 * With mighty sway doth light,

And ’tis as though on the mountains grow
 * Full many oaks of might,

And from a rock there falls a tree,
 * That on those oaks doth smite.

T’ assail the castle from behind
 * Now Czestmir gives command,