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Ye see yonder wreath of mist,
Yonder mist wreath by the dark forest?
In yonder mist is Kraljević Marko,
See to what madness he hath urged Sharatz!
God wot—this bodeth but little good."
Right so Marko came thither,
He pulled out his sword from his thigh,
And ran upon Murad the Vizier. 70
The brave fellowship fled athwart the plain,
As sparrows flee to the thicket before the sparrow-hawk.
But Marko overtook Murad,
And hewed off his head,
And of the twelve companions,
He made four and twenty.
Then Marko fell to pondering,
Whether were better to seek the Sultan at Jedren[1],
Or to hie him to Prilep to his own white manor.
And when he had well considered, he said:80
"It were better to go to Jedren to the Sultan,
And tell him what I have done,
Than to suffer the Turks first to make accusation against me."
When Marko was come to Jedren,
And was entered into the Divan into the Sultan's presence,
His eyes grew blurred in his head
Like the eyes of a famished wolf in the forest.
And when he looked, it was as if lightning flashed.
The Sovereign Sultan asked him, saying:
"My son, Kraljević Marko, 90
Wherefore art thou come in such sore anger?
Art thou in lack of money?"
Then Marko began to speak to the Sultan,
And he told him all as it had come to pass.
When the Sultan had heard Marko,
He burst out laughing.
And said to him:
- ↑ Adrianople.
