Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/385

XXIX.]

With that the thing was settled,— that none should strike a blow.

Whereby the queen was stricken unto the heart with woe.

The heroes all disbanded: fearful lest death indeed

Be dealt them by the fiddler: in sooth they had good need.

Then spake anon the fiddler: “We have right plainly seen

That foemen here beset us, as we forewarn’d have been.

Now to the court return we and seek the sovrans there:

That no one, then, our masters to meet in strife may dare.

“How oft a man, faint-hearted, will let a chance slip by,

When if a friend beside him upheld him cheerfully

And with good understanding, he would not do the same.

Right many a man by forethought is saved from loss and shame.”

“Where you go I will follow,” Hagen was quick to say;

Then back into the courtyard forthwith they took their way,

Where still in grand assembly waited the knightly crowd.

And then the valiant Volker began to speak aloud

And say unto his masters: “How long here will ye stay

To let yourselves be crowded? To court ye should away,

And from the king discover what he in mind may have.”

Then might one see forgather the heroes good and brave.

The prince of Bern, Sir Dietrich, took hold of by the hand

Gunther, the mighty ruler of the Burgundian land.

Irnfried was fain with Gernot, that right bold man, to fare,

And Rüdeger went walking to court with Giselher.