Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/116

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By general agreement the combat then was stopped,

And many a battered buckler was by the fighters dropped,

And many a helm;—whatever was found upon the land,

Bore on it blood-red traces of some Burgundian hand.

They captured whom they listed: all had they in their power.

And King Gernot and Hagen,— of chivalry the flower,—

Had the sick borne on litters; and, with them, took they then,

As prisoners to the Rhineland, five hundred goodly men.

Meanwhile the vanquished warriors to Denmark rode away,

Nor could the Saxons boast of much better luck than they,

That any one need praise them: sore vexed these heroes were.

The friends, too, of the fallen bewailed them, in despair.

They had their arms and weapons unto the Rhine conveyed.

How well now all had ended! With his brave warriors’ aid

Siegfried the prince had done it, as he did all things, well;

Which even Gunther’s liegemen were bound in truth to tell.

To Worms a message firstly the gallant Gernot sent,

To let his friends and kinsmen know how the matter went,

And what success had crowned them,— him and his lieges all:

For honour had they striven, and gallantly withal.

The young esquires ran quickly, and soon the news was told,

And they for joy exulted,— whom grief before did hold,—

At these all-welcome tidings, which to the city came,

And many were the questions asked by each noble dame: