Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/288

230 “These ye must bear hence to Etzel’s land and wear them at court for my sake, whithersoever ye turn, that men may tell me how ye have served me yonder at the feast.” What the lady craved, he later carried out full well.

Then spake the host to his guests: “Ye shall journey all the gentlier, for I myself will guide you and bid guard you well, that none may harm you on the road.”

Then his sumpters were laden soon. The host was well beseen with five hundred men with steeds and vesture. These he took with him full merrily hence to the feasting. Not one of them later ever came alive to Beehelaren. With a loving kiss the host parted hence; the same did Giselher, as his gentle breeding counseled him. In their arms they clasped fair wives. This many a high-born maid must needs bewail in later times. On every side they opened the casements, for the host with his liegemen would now mount their steeds. I ween their hearts did tell them of the bitter woes to come. Then wept many a dame and many a comely maid. They pined for their dear kinsmen, whom nevermore they saw in Beehelaren. Yet these rode merrily across the sand, down along the Danube to the Hunnish land.

Then noble Rüdeger, the full lusty knight, spake to the Burgundians: “Certes, the tidings that we be coming to the Huns must not be left unsaid, for King Etzel hath never heard aught that pleased him more.”

So down through Austria the envoy sped, and to the folk on every side ’t was told that the heroes were coming from Worms beyond the Rhine. Naught could have been liefer to the courtiers of the king. On before