Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/435

XXXVI.]

“After such insult grievous as ye on me have cast,

(Nor shall ye profit by it if life for me should last)

My child, that ye have slain me, and many of my kin.

Peace and atonement, surely, ye cannot hope to win!”

Whereto made answer Gunther: “By dire need we were led.

My people all were lying before thy heroes dead

Within the hostel yonder: what pretext did I lend?

To thee in good faith came I, I thought thou wert my friend.”

Then Giselher, the youngest of the Burgundian three:

“Ye chiefs,” cried he, “of Etzel, who living yet may be,

How have I wrong’d ye, warriors? In what am I to blame?

Unto this country riding in kindly mood I came.”

They answer’d: “Every city throughout the land with woe

Is fill’d through this thy kindness. Ay, glad were we, I trow,

If thou hadst ne’er come hither from Worms beyond the Rhine.

The country thou hast orphan’d, with brothers twain of thine.”

Thereon, in wrathful humour, Gunther the warrior spake;

“If of this bitter hatred an ending ye would make

With us, unhappy strangers, ’twere better for us both!

’Tis for no fault on our part what Etzel to us doth.”

Then to the guests the host said: “Your troubles and my own

Are nowise to be liken’d. The burden on me thrown

Of shame and loss together which I have had to bear;—

For this not one among you hence with his life shall fare.”