Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/287

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SCHMAT-RAZUM
243

while the archer did not so much as lift a hand, but continued to shout against the Tzar.

Hearing the uproar, the Tzar himself at length came to the window and seeing the archer and hearing his words, waxed exceedingly wroth. "Wilt thou suffer this insolent bowman," he cried, "to revile me before my own Palace?" And he sent in haste for his soldiers. They assembled, but as they came, the archer took his golden horn and blew it and at once the invincible host appeared, horse and foot, glittering in bright armor. He began to rap on his earthen bowl and instantly ships-of-war were along all the coast. He opened his crystal casket and the waves rose and the water lifted ten feet, so that the ships came sailing up to the very walls of the capital.

The watchmen sitting on the Tzar's watchtowers cried to those beneath that a hundred warships had arrived under sail and were coming to attack the capital, and they hastened to tell the Tzar. Furious, he mounted his horse and rode out at the head of all his army and bade them open battle.

Taraban called the captains of his host and gave them orders. The musicians began to play and the horses to chafe and fume, the drummers beat their