Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/269

XIX.]

Now when they saw the Rhine-men coming the hoard to take,

The ever-valiant Albrich unto his comrades spake:

“We dare not keep the treasure withholden from her power,

Seeing the noble lady can claim it as her dower.

“Yet never would the matter have come to such a pass,

Had we not had,” said Albrich, “the evil luck, alas!

The goodly cap of darkness with Siegfried’s self to lose:

Which fair Kriemhilda’s husband was ever wont to use.

“Now evil unto Siegfried hath happen’d since the day

That from our hands the hero the Tarnhelm took away,

And all this land by conquest did to his service bind.”

Then went the treasure-keeper straightway the keys to find.

At the hill-foot were waiting the Queen Kriemhilda’s men

And sundry of her kinsmen; the treasure bore they then

Down to the lake-shore, lading their vessel with the same:

Then o’er the waves they took it and up the Rhine-stream came.

Now may you of this treasure a wondrous story hear:

It took a dozen wagons it from the mount to bear;

Four days and nights they ceased not to carry it away;

And each must make the journey, so laden, thrice a day.

Naught else but gold and jewels within this treasure lay;

And had one taken from it what would the whole world pay,

’Twould not have seem’d to eyesight of one mark’s value quit.

Ay! Not without some reason did Hagen covet it.