Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/370

312 “My Lord Dietrich, now be ye not so wroth; the damage to my friends and me is all too great. Fain would we have carried Rüdeger’s corse away, but King Gunther’s liegemen would not grant it us.”

“Woe is me of these sorrows! If Rüdeger then be dead, ’t will bring me greater dole, than all my woe. Noble Gotelind is the child of my father’s sister; alas for the poor orphans, that be now in Bechelaren.”

Rüdeger’s death now minded him of ruth and dole. Mightily the hero gan weep; in sooth he had good cause, “Alas for this faithful comrade whom I have lost! In truth I shall ever mourn for King Etzel’s liegeman. Can ye tell me, Master Hildebrand, true tidings, who be the knight, that hath slain him there?”

Quoth he: “That stout Gernot did, with might and main, but the hero, too, fell dead at Rüdeger’s hands.”

Again he spake to Hildebrand: “Pray say to my men, that they arm them quickly, for I will hie me hither, and bid them make ready my shining battle weeds. I myself will question the heroes of the Burgundian land.”

Then spake Master Hildebrand: “Who then shall join you? Whatso of living men ye have, ye see stand by you. ’T is I alone; the others, they be dead.”

He started at this tale; forsooth, he had good cause, for never in his life had he gained so great a grief. He spake: “And are my men all dead, then hath God forgotten me, poor Dietrich. Once I was a lordly king, mighty, high, and rich.” Again Sir Dietrich spake: “How could it hap, that all the worshipful heroes died at the hands of the battle-weary, who were themselves hard pressed? Were it not for mine