Swarmed like bees, the whole earth dark’ning on Rovine’s[1] marshy fields,
Numberless their high tents pitching, waiting for the battle grim;
Ominous the oak-woods rustled looming in the distance dim.
A peace messenger came bearing on a rod a kerchief white.
Bajazet then asked him, looking as to one whom he did slight:
—„Say, what wantest thou?“
—„Your Highness, peace is all we come to seek,
If you grant it, fain our lord would with the gracious emperor speak“
At a sign the way was opened, to the tent with nobleness
Came an old man plain and simple in his words and in his dress.
—„Thou art Mircea?“
—„Yes, High Sultan!“
—„For thine homage here came I,
Lest thy crown to thorns be changèd, with my will thou must comply.“
—„Howsoe’er thou camest, Sultan, and whate’er thy thought may be,
While we are in peace and quiet, as a friend I welcome thee.
As for vassal’s homage, pardon! but our honour this denies:
Would’st thou with thy warring armies this poor country now chastise?
Give us rather, mighty Sultan, a high token of thy grace
And magnanimously leave us, back again thy way retrace...
Be the one or be the other, what our fate may have in store,
Gladly shall we bear it always, be it peace or be it war.“
—„When the world to me is open, thinkest thou that I can bear
That my mighty host should stumble on a stump that’s lying there?
O thou knowest not how many in my way with armies pressed!
All the heroes bold and famous, all the glory of the West.
All that ’neath the cross was gathered, kings and emperors great did form
An innumerable army ’gainst the crescent’s furious storm.
In their shining mail, well armoured, and in martial proud array
Came the dauntless knights of Malta bold and eager for the fray;
And the Pope, the triple-crownèd, all his gathered thunders sent
- ↑ Rovine (pron. Roveena), a marshy plain near the Danube where Mircea Basarab (pron. Meerchah), ruler of Wallachia (1386—1418) vanquished the sultan Bajazet. He also took part at the battle of Nicopolis (1396) in the last crusade of the West against the Turks.
- ↑ Allusion to the name of Bajazet „the Thunder“
