Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/235

XVI]

With them rode Siegfried also, in honourable mind.

They carried food, too, with them, and that in divers kind.

Hard by a cool spring was he foredoom’d to lose his life.

And this was by the counsel of Brunhild, Gunther’s wife.

First went the bold thane thither where he Kriemhilda found,

Already on pack-horses his hunting-gear was bound,

And that of his companions: to cross the Rhine they meant,

Kriemhilda ne’er before had such reason to lament.

And then his own belovéd he on the mouth did kiss:

“God grant that I may find thee, my wife, safe, after this;

And that thine eyes may see me! With good friends, till I come

Beguile the time of waiting, I may not bide at home.”

Now thought she of the secret she had to Hagen told:—

She did not dare to own it,— nor longer could withhold

The noble queen lamenting that she had e’er been born!

For thus with grief unmeasured did Siegfried’s fair wife mourn.

She spake unto the warrior: “Ah, let your hunting be!

Last night I had an ill dream: two wild boars I did see

That chased you o’er the moorland: the flowers grew red as blood.

If I do weep thus sorely, ’tis that I bode no good.

“I have a sore misgiving that there may be some plot:

Whether some grudge be owed us for service rendered not,

Which may be bringing on us dire hate and enmity?

Go not, dear lord, I beg thee in truth and honesty.”