Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/440

362

In such distressful doings the night to ending wore,

And still the gallant minstrel kept watch the house before

With Hagen his companion; upon their shields they leant,

From Etzel’s folk awaiting some further detriment.

Then spake the fiddle-player: “Now go we to the hall:

So shall the Huns imagine that each of us and all

Have perish’d in this torture that hath on us been done;

Yet shall they see us meet them, in battle, everyone.”

Then Giselher, the youngest of the Burgundians, spake:

“A cool wind is arising, I trow the day will break.

Now grant us, God of Heaven, on better times to fall!

For us my sister Kriemhild hath made ill festival.”

Then spake there yet another: “The dawning I can see;

And since for us naught better is ever like to be,

Do on your armour, heroes; see to your safety all;—

King Etzel’s wife, I doubt not, will quickly on us fall.”

The host might well imagine that all the guests were slain

By dint of all their labours, or by the fiery pain;

Yet still of them were living six hundred gallant wights,

Than whom no king whatever had any better knights.

They who the strangers guarded had fail’d not to espy

That still the guests were living, in spite of injury

And pains that had befallen the lords and liegemen too;

Quite sound they saw them pacing the chamber to and fro.