Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/361

Rh themselves, what there had fortuned, for men had never seen from folks so great a grief. The messenger gan ask: “What hath here been done?”

At this one among them spake: “Whatever of joy we had in the Hunnish land hath passed away. Here lieth Rüdeger, slain by the Burgundians’ hands; and of those who were come with him, not one hath ’scaped alive.”

Sir Helfrich could never have had a greater dole. Sorely weeping, the envoy went to Dietrich. Never was he so loth to tell a tale. “What have ye found for us?” quoth Dietrich, “Why weep ye so sore, Knight Helfrich?”

Then spake the noble champion: “I have good cause for wail. The Burgundians have slain the good Sir Rüdeger.”

At this the hero of Berne made answer: “Now God forbid. That were a fearful vengeance, over which the foul fiend would gloat. Wherewith hath Rüdeger deserved this at their hands? I know full well, forsooth, he is the strangers’ friend.”

To this Wolfhart answered: “And have they done this deed, ’t will cost them all their lives. ’T would be our shame, should we let this pass, for of a truth the hand of the good knight Rüdeger hath served us much and oft.”

The lord of the Amelungs bade learn it better. In bitter grief he sate him at a window and begged Hildebrand to hie him to the strangers, that he might find from them what had been done. The storm-brave warrior, Master Hildebrand, bare neither shield nor weapon in his hand. In courtly wise he would hie him to the strangers; for this he was chided by his sister’s son.