Page:Libussa, Duchess of Bohemia; also, The Man Without a Name.djvu/61

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Libussa.
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perty to the malicious amusement of his fierce and violent neighbour, being merely able to save himself from the rapid flood. Powerful daughter of the sage Krokus, the poor planter entreats you to order the presumptuous river not to throw any more its proud waves over the fields of the laborious husbandman, and thus destroy his hard labour and future hopes, but to flow quietly on within the limits of its own bed.”

During this speech the serene countenance of the beautiful Libussa became clouded, a judge’s seriousness was observable in her eyes, and all around were silent to hear her judgment, which was as follows:—“Thy case is simple and straightforward, and no power shall interfere with thy rights. A strong dyke shall stop the force of the unbridled stream, which it shall be unable to pass, and with its fishes it shall repay thee sevenfold for the loss its destroying waves have caused.”

Then she made a sign to the eldest of the deputies of the community belonging to Mizislas; who, bowing to the ground, said, “Sage daughter of the glorious Krokus, tell us to whom belongs the corn in the fields;—to the man who sows the seed and puts it into the earth, that it may germinate and bring fruit, or to the storm which crushes and destroys it?”