Spake Kriemhild again: "Of thy jewel the thief was nowise I. Far better hadst thou kept silence, hadst thou held thine honour high! Lo, I prove it again by the girdle which compasseth my waist. Not I am the liar!--by Siegfried first was thy body embraced." Fair-plaited of silk of the Orient was the girdle that she ware, With precious stones thick-studded, a marvel passing fair. That Brunhild beheld, and she brake forth into stormy weeping then, Crying, "This shall be known of Gunther and of all his mighty men!" {P. 116} Then spake the Queen of Rhineland: "Send unto me straightway Gunther the Lord of the Kingdom, for he shall hear this day How foully his sister hath slandered and spoken shame of the Queen. She saith before all people that Siegfried's wife have I been." The King came girt with his barons: he saw the grief-bowed head And the tears of his dear wife Brunhild, and lovingly he said: "Of whom, my wife, my belovèd, hath a hurt been done unto thee?" And she spake to the King, and she answered: "Joyless for aye must I be! Of all my wifely honour this thy sister is fain To strip me by shameful accusing: unto thee I must needs complain. She saith that with Siegfried her husband I have wantoned in shame and sin." Answered and spake King Gunther: "She hath wickedly done herein!" "She weareth here my girdle, which long time since I lost, And withal my ring of the red gold--O me, to my bitter cost Was I born, and I rue it ever! If thou clear not my name From the stain of such utter abasement, my love never more shalt thou claim." Then spake to a lord King Gunther: "Summon him hither thou. If he of such deed have boasted, he must make confession now, Or must give to the lie denial, this hero of Netherland." So unto that presence Siegfried was called by the King's command. So then when the good knight Siegfried saw faces disquieted, And the cause thereof divined not, straightway he spake and said: "Now wherefore weep these ladies? This unto me make known; And wherefore the King hath called me hither, be this too shown." Then spake King Gunther: "Sorrow I find here bitter as death. The Lady Brunhild hath told me a tale of venomous breath, Even this, that thou hast vaunted that thou in bridal bed First didst embrace her. Of Kriemhild thy wife is this thing said."