Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/174

116 hild spied it, she began to weep. Gunther and all the Burgundian men must needs now learn of this.

Then spake the queen: “Bid the prince of the Rhineland come hither. I will let him hear how his sister hath mocked me. She saith here openly that I be Siegfried’s wife.”

The king came with knights, and when he saw his love a-weeping, how gently he spake: “Pray tell me, dear lady, who hath done you aught?”

She answered to the king: “I must stand unhappy; thy sister would fain part me from all mine honors. I make here plaint to thee she doth aver that Siegfried, her husband hath had me as his leman.”

Quoth King Gunther: “Then hath she done ill.”

“She weareth here my girdle, which I have lost, and my ring of ruddy gold. It doth repent me sore that I was ever born, unless be thou clearest me of this passing great shame, for that I’ll serve thee ever.”

King Gunther spake: “Have him come hither. He must let us hear if he hath made boast of this, or he must make denial, the hero of Netherland.” One bade fetch at once Kriemhild’s love.

When Siegfried saw the angry dames (he wist not of the tale), how quickly then he spake: “I fain would know why these ladies weep, or for what cause the king hath had me fetched.”

Then King Gunther spake: “It doth rue me sore, forsooth. My Lady Brunhild hath told me here a tale, that thou hast boasted thou wast the first to clasp her lovely body in thine arms; this Lady Kriemhild, thy wife, doth say.”

Then spake Lord Siegfried: “And she hath told