Page:The lay of the Nibelungs; (IA nibelungslay00hortrich).pdf/473

XXXVIII.]

“Now must ye, Master Hildebrand, tell me the story true.

Which of the warriors was it who him so foully slew?”

“That did the stalwart Gernot by strength of arm,” he said:

“By Rüdeger’s hand the hero is also lying dead.”

To Hildebrand then spake he: “Now let my liegemen know

That they must straightway arm them, for thither will I go;

And bid them bring me hither my shirt of shining mail.

From the Burgundian heroes myself I’ll have the tale.”

Then Hildebrand made answer: “Who shall now go with thee?

None others hast thou living but what thou here dost see;

I am thine only liegeman; the others all are dead.”

He shudder’d at these tidings— in sooth, there was good need,

For never such great sorrow he in this world had known.

He spake: “And if my liegemen are truly dead and gone,

Then am I God-forsaken, I, Dietrich, wretched wight!

Erewhile a noble sovran and full of power and might.”

“How could such thing have happen’d?” spake Dietrich once again,

“These far-renownéd heroes,— that all of them are slain

By men with fighting weary, in sore necessity!

But for mine evil fortune, death still afar would be.

“Seeing my doom avails not to ward from me this ill,

Now tell me, of the guest-folk are any living still?”

Then Master Hildebrand answer’d: “God knoweth, only twain—

Hagen to wit, and Gunther the noble king—remain.”