Then Siegmund feared and was sore affrighted. With an hundred of his men he sprang out of his bed; they grasped their long swords and keen, with their hands, and ran sorrowfully where they heard the sound of weeping. A thousand of Siegfried’s knights came running. They thought not on their vesture till they were there, for they had lost their wits through grief. Mickle woe was buried in their hearts. Then came Siegmund to Queen Kriemhild, and said, “Woe is me for our journey hither! Who, among such good friends, hath murderously robbed me of my child, and thee of thy husband?” “If I knew that,” answered the noble woman, “I were ever his foe with heart and soul. Trust me, I would so contrive his hurt that all his friends, by reason of me, would yet weep for sorrow.” Siegmund took the prince in his arms; the grief of his friends was so great that, with their loud wailing and their weeping, palace and hall and the town of Worms rang again. None could comfort Siegfried’s wife. They took the clothes off his beautiful body, and washed his wounds and laid him on a bier, and all his folk were heavy with great grief. Then spake his knights of the Netherland, “Our hands are ready for vengeance. He that hath done it is in this house.” Siegfried’s men armed them in haste; the valiant knights assembled to the number of eleven hundred. These had Siegmund, the mighty king, for his following; and, as his honour bade him, he had gladly avenged the death of his son. They knew not whom they should fall on, if it were not Gunther and his men, with whom Siegfried had gone hunting. But when Kriemhild saw them armed, she was greatly grieved. For all her dole and her pain, she so feared the death of the Nibelungs at the hand of her brother’s men that she forbade their vengeance, and warned them in love, as friend doth with dear friend. The sorrowful queen said, “My lord, Siegmund, what wouldst thou do? Surely thou knowest not how many bold knights Gunther hath. If ye come to grips with them, ye must certainly perish.” They stood eager for strife with their shields dressed, but the queen begged and commanded them to forbear; that they would not, grieved her sore. She said, “My lord Siegmund, let be, till more fitting season, and I will help thee to avenge my husband. Verily, I will show him that took him from me that he hath done it to his hurt. Here by the Rhine there are so many overweening men that I would have thee, for the present, forbear from battle; for thy one man they have at least the thirty. God do to them as they have done to us. Tarry here, brave knights, and mourn with me till it is day, and help me to lay my dear husband in his coffin.” The warriors answered, “Dear lady, be it so.”