Page:The Queens Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems, 1852, Cambridge edition.djvu/112

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NOT IN QUEEN’S COURT MANUSCRIPT.

Uprose Chrudos from Otava winding,
Anger pour’d itself throughout his body,
All his limbs with savage fierceness trembled,
Like a bull he roars, his strong hand swinging:
“Woe to nests, to which the snake approacheth!
“Woe to men, o’er whom a woman ruleth!
“That a man o’er men should rule is fitting;
“It is right the first-born should inherit.”
From her golden throne Libussa rising
Saith, “Ye Kmets, ye Lechs, and ye Vladykas!
“Ye have heard the insults cast upon me;
“Judge yourselves, and give the legal sentence!
“Never more will I your strifes determine!
“Choose a man, an equal, from your number,
“That he may with iron sway and rule you!—
“Weak o’er you to rule is hand of maiden!”
Ratibor from Kerkonossian mountains
Rose, and thus began to make oration:
“Shame ’t were we should justice seek from Germans!
“We by sacred law have right and justice,
“Which our fathers brought into these regions.—

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