They went through the forest searching for survivors of the battle. And, hidden in a dell in the forest, they came upon two women. One was tall with blue, unflinching eyes and ruddy hair, but wearing the garb of a serving-maid. The other wore the rich dress of a Queen, but she was of low stature and her manner was covert and shrinking. When Alv and his father drew near, the one who had on her the raiment of a Queen said, "Help us, lords, and protect us, and we will show you where a treasure is hidden. A great battle has been fought between the men of King Lygni and the men of King Sigmund, and the men of King Lygni have won the victory and have gone from the field. But King Sigmund is slain, and we who are of his household hid his treasure and we can show it to you." "The noble warrior, white-haired and white-bearded, who lies yonder--is he King Sigmund?" The woman answered, "Yes, lord, and I am his Queen." "We have heard of King Sigmund," said Alv's father. "His fame and the fame of his race, the Volsungs, is over the wide world." Alv said no word to either of the women, but his eyes stayed on the one who had on the garb of a serving-maid. She was on her knees, wrapping in a beast's skin two pieces of a broken sword. "You will surely protect us, good lords," said she who had on the queenly dress. "Yea, wife of King Sigmund, we will protect you and your serving-maid," said Alv's father, the old King. Then the women took the warriors to a wild place on the seashore and they showed them where King Sigmund's treasure was hidden amongst the rocks: cups of gold and mighty armrings and jeweled collars. Prince Alv and his father put the treasure on the ship and brought the two women aboard. Then they sailed from the land. That was before Sigurd, the fosterson of King Alv, was born. Now the mother of Alv was wise and little of what she saw escaped her noting. She saw that of the two women that her son and her husband had brought into their kingdom, the one who wore the dress of the serving-maid had unflinching eyes and a high beauty, while the one who wore the queenly dress was shrinking and unstately. One night when all the women of the household were sitting round her, spinning wool by the light of torches in the hall, the Queen-mother said to the one who wore the queenly garb: "Thou art good at rising in the morning. How dost thou know in the dark hours when it wears to dawn?" The one clad in the queenly garb said, "When I was young I used to rise to milk the cows, and I waken ever since at the same hour." The Queen-mother said to herself, "It is a strange country in which the royal maids rise to milk the cows." Then she said to the one who wore the clothes of the serving-maid: "How dost thou know in the dark hours when the dawn is coming?" "My father," she said, "gave me the ring of gold that I wear, and always before it is time to rise I feel it grow cold on my finger."