Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/432

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Anon were met together Haward and Hagen bold,

I wot that whoso saw them a marvel might behold!

From hand of either hero the sword-strokes follow’d free;

Foredoom’d to die was Haward by him of Burgundy.

When Danesmen and Thuringians their leaders saw in death,

Then rose a frightful struggle the palace walls beneath,

Or ever they the gateway by might and main had won:

Full many a shield and helmet were shatter’d and fordone.

“Give way!” then shouted Volker, “and let them all come through—

What they would fain accomplish they can in nowise do.

In but a short time after they’re bound to die within,

And what the queen hath promised by dying they can win.”

Now when these haughty chieftains within the chamber went,

Of many a one amongst them the head was lowly bent,

For by their rapid sword-blows to perish he was fain.

Well fought the gallant Gernot, and Giselher the thane.

There got within the palace a thousand men and four;

One saw their flashing falchions as through the air they tore.

Of all who came within it soon every warrior fell.

One might of the Burgundians full many a marvel tell.

Thereafter was a silence, and all the uproar died.

While, out of hole and crevice, blood flow’d on every side

And ran into the gutters from all the corpses there.

Thus had the men of Rhineland wrought by their prowess rare.