Till the even they waited; in darkness they crossed the Rhineflood then. Never from eviller hunting came heroes home again!
That quarry was cause of lamenting unto many a noble wife:
For his sake must many a warrior forfeit a gallant life.
Of exceeding arrogant outrage now must the minstrel sing,
Yea, of revenge inhuman; for Hagen made them bring
The Netherland hero Siegfried, even his murdered kin,
Before a certain chamber—and Kriemhild lay therein!
Secretly there he laid him, before that door to lie,
That his wife might find his body when her feet came forth thereby
Unto mass in the grey dawn faring ere rising of the sun;
For thereof the Lady Kriemhild missed full seldom one.
{p. 137}
Then heard they the bells as aforetime peal from the minster-tower;
And Kriemhild the lovely wakened the maidens of her bower;
And she bade bring lights, and the raiment withal that she should wear;
And a chamberlain bringing them stumbled on Siegfried lying there.
He beheld one blood-empurpled, with all his vesture wet;
But that this was his own lord Siegfried in no wise knew he yet.
So bare he into the chamber the torch in his hand that burned;
And from him the Lady Kriemhild a tale of horror learned.
For, even as she with her maidens would forth to the holy place,
“O Lady,” the chamberlain stammered, “tarry a little space!
Behold, without the chamber a murdered knight doth lie!”
Rang out from the lips of Kriemhild an exceeding bitter cry.
Ere she had looked, ere the fearful truth was certainly known,
Back to that question of Hagen her thought had swiftly flown,
How he should shield him. Anguish she never had known till that day;
But now with his death all gladness from her life had fled away.
To the floor then sank she swooning; no word her lips could say.
There in the heavy silence the lovely and joyless lay.
Full was her cup of sorrow, sharp was her anguish-pang.
She came to herself with a wild shriek, that all the chamber rang.
Then faltered her bower-maidens, “A stranger it haply may be.”
But the blood from her mouth came bursting in her heart’s fierce agony—
“O nay, it is Siegfried, Siegfried, my lord, my belovèd one!
Brunhild hath plotted the murder, and Hagen the deed hath done!”
Then forth did her handmaids lead her, where lay the hero dead;
And the wife’s white hands uplifted the husband’s comely head.
Albeit with blood all crimsoned, he was known of love’s keen sight.
There lay the Niblung hero in lamentable plight.
Then the cry of a queen’s heart-anguish through the shadowy palace pealed
“Woe for my bitter affliction!—behold, how lieth thy shield
With swords unbacked! O Siegfried, thee did a murderer smite!
Him—knew I the doer—my vengeance to the uttermost should requite!”
{p. 138}
Brake forth into wailing her maidens with lamentation loud
With her, their belovèd Lady: they mourned all sorrow-bowed
For their noble King and their Master, lost unto them for aye.
Foully avenged by Hagen was Brunhild’s wrath that day!
Then spake the sorrow-stricken: “Let some one haste away,
And swiftly arouse from slumber my Siegfried’s vassal-array:
Let him tell withal unto Siegmund the tale of my bitter pain.
He must bear his part in the wailing o’er valiant Siegfried slain.”
Then ran a messenger, hasting where lay the warrior-band
Of the vassals of King Siegfried, the Lord of the Netherland.
That story of sore tribulation stripped bare their life of its joys.
They believed not, till came far-ringing that lamentable voice.
Hasted the messenger onward, where the old King lay on his bed;
Yet not on the eyes of Siegmund had the dews of slumber been shed,
For dimly his heart foreboded the sorrow hard by the door.
He was doomed to behold his belovèd, his son, in life no more!
“Wake thee, O wake, King Siegmund! Tidings to thee I bring
From the Lady Kriemhild my mistress—there hath happed a fearful thing.
Above all woes known or imagined she hath suffered grief and wrong.
Thou must bear thy part in the wailing, for to thee doth the sorrow belong.”
Uprose then Siegmund, and questioned: “For what lamenteth she,
My daughter, Kriemhild the lovely, as now thou sayest to me?”
“Sore cause hath she for lamenting,” weeping the messenger said:
“Murdered is Siegfried the valiant, her lord and her love lieth dead!”
Answered and spake King Siegmund: “Jest me no jests! Have done
With a tale of such evil tidings concerning Siegfried my son!
Unto no man say thou hereafter that slain he is!—O nay,
For then could I never with wailing have done to my latest day!”
“Nay then, if thou wilt not believe me, if thou wilt not receive my tale,
Thou shalt learn for thine own self—hearken! for that is Kriemhild’s wail
And the cry of all her maidens for Siegfried in death laid low!”
Sharp terror thrilled through Siegmund, and pangs of unfeignèd woe.
{p. 139}
He sprang from his bed: gathered round him a hundred men of his band.
Each man had caught up swiftly a sword keen-whetted in hand.
Forth ran they whither the woeful death-keen guided them on,
And after them knights a thousand, bold Siegfried’s vassals, are gone.
Was none that bethought him of vesture, till suddenly these drew nigh
Where the long wild wail of the women went shivering up to the sky.
In their anguish had none remembered; they knew not what they did;
All thought was buried with sorrow in the grave of their hearts deep hid.
So came King Siegmund where Kriemhild crouched by Siegfried’s side:
“Woe for our journey hither to this land accursèd!” he cried.
“Who hath reft from thee thine husband, hath torn this son most dear
From me by the hand of murder, when none but friends were near?”
“Ha, if I knew but the felon,” in fierce grief answered the Queen,
“Never mine heart should forgive him while memory’s edge is keen!
With such vengeance would I requite him, that all his friends and his kin.
Trust me, should weep for my weeping, should find their affliction therein!”
Then in his arms did Siegmund embrace that fallen chief;
Then rose from all his lovers so mighty a cry of grief
That with that wild lamentation did hall and palace ring,
And wailed up the streets of the city the shrieks wide-echoing.
Who then to the wife of Siegfried to speak of comfort dared?
They drew off the blood-stained raiment, and his goodly limbs they bared.
They washed his wounds dark-clotted, they laid him on the bier.
High swelled the tide of anguish in all that held him dear.
Then cried aloud his warriors that came from the Netherland:
“Ready and eager for vengeance waiteth ever our hand.
Here in this castle he lurketh of whom the deed was done!”
Then hasted the knights of Siegfried to gird their armour on.
With their shields those chosen heroes full-armed returned again,
Brave knights eleven hundred; they were all of the warrior-train
Now of the old King Siegmund: full fain for the death of his son
Would the father have taken vengeance; yea, honour spurred him on.
{p. 140}
But as yet these wronged ones knew not upon whom should their vengeance light,
Unless peradventure with Gunther and his vassals they closed in fight;
For these on that woeful hunting with Siegfried rode that day.
Then all-armed Kriemhild beheld them, and filled was her soul with dismay.
How wild was her grief soever, how tortured soever her breast,
Yet for the lives of the Niblungs she trembled terror-distressed,
Lest by the men of her brethren they be slain; and she earnestly spake,
And in love she warned them, as ever doth friend for a dear friend’s sake:
And she cried from the depths of her sorrow: “My lord, O Siegmund King,
What would ye essay? Ye know not how all too hard is the thing.
For the valiant men of Gunther be a passing great array:
Ye shall perish all of a surety, if ye fall on so many as they!”
But they clashed their uptossed bucklers, with the battle-lust were they mad.
But the noble Daughter of Princes now pleaded, and now forbade
Those knights all battle-eager to rush upon their doom;
And it troubled her very sorely that they would not be turned therefrom.
Then she turned to the King—“Lord Siegmund, for this time sheathed be the sword
Till there come a convenient season. Fear not, for my murdered lord
I will help you to wreak full vengeance. Who hath torn my love from mine hands
Shall drink of my vengeance deeply, when once convicted he stands.
But here by the Rhine so many of our haughty foes there are,
That I counsel you, I beseech you, rush not yet into war.
They can set in array full thirty where we can set but one.
May God so do to the traitors as they unto us have done!
Abide ye here in the palace, and mourn for my dead with your Queen,
Until the day beginneth, O heroes battle-keen:
Then help me to lay in a coffin the man beloved of me.”
Answered the thanes: “Dear Lady, as thou wilt, so shall it be.”
The marvel of that lamentation, no man can tell it o’er,
How the wail of the knights and the maidens, like the stormy tempest-roar,
{p. 141}
Shrieked through the shuddering city till all her people heard,
And thitherward hasted the burghers, a great throng terror-stirred.
They joined to the guests’ their wailing, they grieved for the glory gone.
Wherein had Siegfried offended, unto no man was it known:
Nay, none could divine cause wherefore the good knight lost his life.
So wept with the Queen’s handmaidens many a burgher’s wife.
Now for the silversmiths sent they, and bade them haste to mould
A great and............