[ 102 ]
That thou takest from Moors their slave-girls?"
Kraljević Marko laughed:
"Get ye hence," quoth he, "Moorish children,
That I lay no sin upon my soul because of you."
But the twelve Moors waxed wonderly wroth,
And every each of them drew sword,
And overthrew the tent upon Marko.
They cut through the tent ropes 40
That the tent fell down upon the falcon Marko,
And on his battle-flag that bare the rood,
And upon Sharatz his stout steed.
When Kraljević Marko perceived
That his silken tent was overturned
Marko's wrath blazed up like living fire.
Lightly he leapt to his feet,
And seized great Sharatz.
To horse he sprang behind the damsel,
Three times he girdled her with his girdle,50
And the fourth with his sword-belt.
Then he pulled out his well-forged sword,
And so ran on the Moors.
Not to the white throat he carved them,
But he carved them even to the silken girdle;
One man became two,
Out of twelve Marko made twice so many,
Of twelve Moors he made four and twenty.
And so he passed athwart the level plain,
Like a star athwart a clear sky. 60
Straight to Prilep town he went
To his white manor.
He called Jevrosima his mother:
"Jevrosima," quoth he, "mine aged mother,
Mother, my sweet, dear one,
Behold, mother, my sister-in-God.
Nourish her, mother, as thou hast nourished me.
Give her in marriage as she were thine own daughter,
That in this wise we may gain friends."
