Page:The Queens Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems, 1852, Cambridge edition.djvu/63

He bids in front the wall to climb,
That firm and high doth stand.
Tall trees that grow ’neath the rock below
They’ve leant ’gainst the castle wall,
That harmlessly the beams flung down
O’er the warriors’ heads may fall.
The warriors range themselves beneath,
With shoulders broad they stand,
Comrade by comrade, man by man,
A bold and valiant band.
Across their shoulders beams they place,
And in part with ropes they tie,
Then firm upon their lances lean,
And men have sprung on high
Upon the beams their comrades bear,
And each supports him on his spear,
And beams anew set crosswise too
Upon their shoulders lie.
A third rank on the second springs,
A fourth the third doth crown,
And the fifth hath reach’d the battlements,
Whence the falchions gleam and the arrows stream,
And the beams roll thundering down.

Now, now they stream, the men of Prague,
Right fiercely o’er the wall,

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