Page:The Queens Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems, 1852, Cambridge edition.djvu/62

The warriors rush’d with wrath inflam’d,
The castle to assail,
At the bidding of Czestmir, their leader bold,
Like the clouds that bear the hail.
The foremost are shelter’d by their shields,
With shield on shield rais’d high,
The hindmost lean upon their spears,
And on trees that crosswise lie;
And higher than the high tree-tops
Round the castle clash their brands,
And rage against the swords that wave
In the defender’s hands.

On the castle Kruvoi roar’d aloud
With the roaring of a bull,
Roar’d loudly, till his people’s hearts
Of valour all were full.
His sword upon the men of Prague
With mighty sway doth light,
And ’tis as though on the mountains grow
Full many oaks of might,
And from a rock there falls a tree,
That on those oaks doth smite.

T’ assail the castle from behind
Now Czestmir gives command,