Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/279

Rh “Gladly will I be the messenger,” Eckewart replied. With a right good will he gat him on the road and told Rüdeger the message he had heard, to whom none such pleasing news had come in many a day.

At Bechelaren men saw a knight pricking fast. Rüdeger himself descried him; he spake: “Upon the road yonder hasteth Eckewart, a liegeman of Kriemhild.”

He weened the foes had done him scathe. Before the gate he went to meet the messenger, who ungirt his sword and laid it from his hand. The tales he brought were not hidden from the host and his friends, but were straightway told them. To the margrave he spake: “Gunther, the lord of the Burgundian land, and Giselher, his brother, and Gernot, too, have sent me hither to you. Each of the warriors tendered you his service. Hagen and Folker, too, eagerly did the same in truth. Still more I’ll tell you, that the king’s marshal sendeth you by me the message, that the good knights have passing need of your lodgement.”

Rüdeger answered with a smile: “Now well is me of these tales, that the high-born kings do reck of my service. It shall not be denied them. Merry and blithe shall I be, an’ they come unto my house.”

“Dankwart, the marshal, bade let you know whom ye should lodge in your house with them: sixty doughty champions, a thousand good knights, and nine thousand men-at-arms.”

Merry of mood grew Rüdeger; he spake: “Now well is me of these guests, that these noble warriors be coming to my house, whom I have served as yet full seldom. Now ride ye forth for to meet them, my kinsmen and my men.”