KRYSPEK’S GOBLET.
In Kralovice, two hundred years,[*]
The family of Kryspek sleep.
Within the family vault they lie,
And none can wake their slumbers deep.
Oh, listen to their banquet dread,
For sure upon this earth ’tis said,
There never was a sadder meal;
Come listen to their bitter weal.
When the Bílá Hora battle,
Spite of all valor had been lost,
And the poor Bohemian country
Had to give itself up for lost,
Then the hangman’s business flourished,
And the ground with blood was nourished;
From the battle now lost for aye,
Came Kryspek’s men, one sad day.
Long before the war now raging,
Jitka’s beauty had minstrels sung.
Every virtue had the maiden,
And praised she was by every tongue.
Seventeen summers had she wandered
In the castle hall, and pondered,
While the striplings from far and wide,
In useless longing for her sighed.
From far and wide they came to woo—
The Castle Kačerov was sought
By noblest youths, who wished to wed
The beauteous maiden, so well taught.
↑ *NOTE.—The bodies of the Kryspek family, for some reason or other were embalmed; one can see them in the castle in Kralovice.
