Now the knights that Bl?del gathered arrayed themselves forthright. To the feast-hall they hied them, a thousand in hauberks harnessed for fight,
To the hall where ranged at the tables the squires with Dankwart sate.
Soon brake there forth between heroes the deadliest of all hate.
In strode the war-thane Bl?del, and afront of the board stood grim.
But with friendly courtesy Dankwart the Marshal greeted him:
“With welcoming to our mansion, Lord Bl?del, I hail thee now;
Yet I marvel at thy coming. What tidings bringest thou?”
“Thou hast nothing to do to greet me,” sternly Bl?del spake;
“Seeing my coming hither an end of thee shall make,
For that Hagen thy brother murdered Siegfried years agone;
For the deed with heroes many shalt thou to the Huns atone.”
“Now nay, my good Lord Bl?del,” peaceably Dankwart replied;
“Sooth, this were a sorry ending for us all unto this high-tide!
But a child was I when Siegfried departed from light and life.
No cause know I why hated I should be of Etzel’s wife.”
“For thee, I know not and care not how the truth of the story lies:
Thy kinsmen, Hagen and Gunther, did it in any wise.
Defend you, ye doomed and homeless! Ye live not another day!
Here, now, with your lives the forfeit unto Kriemhild must ye pay!”
“Ha, will ye forbear not?” cried Dankwart, “ye messengers of death!
I repent me of mine entreaty: I had better have spared my breath!”
That keen knight battle-eager leapt from his place at the board;
He swept from out the scabbard a mighty and long sharp sword:
Therewith hath he dealt unto Bl?del a stroke that as lightning flashed;
And lo, his head in the helmet down at his feet was dashed.
{p. 264}
“That be thy morning bride-gift,” the war-fain warrior cried,
“To the widowed wife of Nudung, whom thou wert to win for bride!
Ay, let them wed her to-morrow to another traitor yet:
If he craveth a dower, that Bl?del hath gotten shall he too get!”
So scoffed he touching the tidings that a Hun true-hearted had brought
Of the plot whereby Queen Kriemhild the destruction of all these sought.
Then saw the men of Bl?del how their good lord lay slain,
And their hands from the guests Burgundian no longer would they refrain.
With swords for the onset uplifted they rushed in furious mood
On the squires—but this their emprise ere long full many rued.
With a great voice then to his henchmen all did Dankwart cry:
“Ye see well, squires brave-hearted, they have doomed us all to die!
Now, homeless men, defend you, for sore is your need, I ween,
—So then for this were we bidden guests of a gracious queen!”
Then, whoso were swordless, ’twixt table and seat good weapons they found,
For many a massy footstool swung they up from the ground.
O yea, those youths Burgundian would flinch no foot from the fray,
But with those ponderous maces the foes’ helms dinted they.
How grimly the friendless yeomen defended them in the fight!
Those armèd knights from the feast-hall they drave in huddled flight.
Five hundred—yea, more, it may be—fled not, for they lay there dead.
There yeomen and squires all blood-drenched stood and crimson-red.
In a little while thereafter these heavy tidings came
To the knights of King Etzel: with anguish and wrath were their souls aflame
That Bl?del with all those warriors nought save death had won.
This had the brother of Hagen with his squires and his yeomen done.
Or ever the King might hear it, a host of the Hunfolk stood,
Two thousand—yea, more, it may be—mail-clad, in furious mood.
They fell on the squires—one ending alone could there be to the strife;—
And they left of all that concourse no single soul in life.
For a mighty host did the traitors lead to that hostelry,
And the homeless men unarmoured withstood them valiantly.
{p. 265}
What profited strength and valour? One doom of death did they find.
—But the feet of a terrible vengeance were treading close behind.
Now must y............