Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/355

XXVI.]

So were they undiscover’d by the warm blood-stains red,

Until the sun uprising with his bright beams had shed

The day-dawn o’er the mountains; then first the king did see

That they had fought. The hero spake to them wrathfully:

“How now? ye have, friend Hagen, methinks but small regard

For this my presence with you, seeing ye thus have dared

To stain with blood your armour! now who hath done this thing?”

“’Twas Else, who set on us last night,” he told the king.

“His ferryman the cause was that we were set upon;

My brother came, and Gelfrat was by his hand fordone;

Then Else fled before us,  by direst need bested.

Four men we lost; a hundred of them we left for dead.”

The place at which they rested I know not to declare;

But all the country people ere long became aware

That sons of noble Uté to court were on their way:

And thus a hearty welcome at Passau soon had they.

The Bishop Pilgrin, uncle of these high rulers three,

Was in his heart well-pleaséd his sister’s sons to see,

With such a host of warriors, thus come to his domain.

That he meant well unto them, was very quickly plain.

Right gladly were they welcomed by friends upon the way;

But since there was at Passau no room for them to stay,

They needs must cross the water, where open field they found;

There tents and wooden cabins they set up on the ground.