Solomon resolved to accompany his friends. Boppo declared he would as soon die in one locality as another, and as well now as at any time. Issuing from the fortress at midnight, the outlawed men gained but a short distance when sentinels discovered their movement. A beacon fire raised the alarm, but blinded the eyes and intensified the shadows. A company of fifty men assailed the fugitives. Boppo set himself in front and took the first shock.
Well the old hero kept the path until Witek and Wok made good their escape. Falling at last, covered with blood, the gallant knight shaded his face with his broad sleeve and there, in the midst of his enemies, breathed his last.
Solomon, apprehended mortally wounded, lay where he fell until morning; and then, as the sun’s first rays beamed upon the spot, and shed a golden glory upon his face, he too yielded his spirit, to mingle, as he hoped, with the great Oneness of the hereafter.
To the garrison the promised terms were harshly accorded. Drda reached his own domain in Moravia; and an amnesty at once issued by Wenzel, without any exception, rendered Drda’s home the refuge of many of the remaining friends of the murdered chieftain.
In Solomon’s raiment was discovered a memorandum of the recent events intended as the basis of a formal report to King Ladislaus.
It stated the course of the recent negotiations, and tragedy involving the death of Zawis. Solomon
