Page:Bohemian legends and other poems.djvu/93

“‘Oh listen,’ said a far-off voice,
‘Singer, of lovely song;
Take out your sword and be your choice,
To save me from this throng.’

“‘Oh, thanks be to that simple song!
Oh, thanks be to the sky!
My life I’ll give to right thy wrong,
Or very gladly die.’

“He went and donned a pilger robe,
Then came with footsteps slow;
One could not see beneath that robe
The sabre hanging low.

“He found them singing a sweet hymn,
While on their knees they prayed.
He stood awhile and heard their hymn—
Hand on his sword he laid.

“On to the church they singing went,
Chanting ‘Zion! Zion!’
With one bound in their midst he went,
Like a roaring lion.

“Between the shrieks and screams of fear,
He caught the girl he loved.
Then turned him to the drawbridge near,
Carrying the maid he loved.

“The keeper of the drawbridge saw,
And would have stopped their flight.
He drew the bridge up, ’twas his law,
To have the chain draw right.

“The youth drew out his mighty sword,
He cut the chain in two.
The links were severed by his sword,
And on the bridge they flew.