She answered, "Thou art my kinsman, and of blood am I near unto thee. I commit my lord, my belovèd, to thy faith and thy fealty, That for my sake o'er my belovèd the shield of protection thou hold." Then to Hagen revealed she a story that had better been left untold. For she said, "My lord is fearless, and the strongest man of men; And he slew on a day mid the mountains the Dragon of the Fen; Then bathed the hero his body in the blood of the monster worm, Wherefore availeth to wound him no weapon that man may form. Yet ever mine heart is fearful when in forefront of battle he stands, And many a flying javelin is sped from warriors' hands, Lest I peradventure may lose him, mine hero of all loved best:-- Ah me, with what fears for Siegfried tosses mine heart in unrest! O friend, dear friend and kinsman, on thy faithful love I lean That thou wilt guard thy troth-plight given herein to a queen, When I tell to thee where my belovèd may be wounded of the steel. Now shalt thou hear: the secret to thine honour and love I reveal. When from the wounds of the Dragon flowed the hot-reeking blood, And when in the red pool bathed him that fearless knight and good, There fell on him 'twixt the shoulders one broad lime-tree leaf On that spot may he be wounded; and this is my sorrow and grief." Answered her Hagen of Troneg: "Thou then with thine own hand sew On his vesture a little token that to me that spot may show The which, when we stand in the war-storm, with heed evermore must I shield." She thought from peril to save him; but so unto death was he sealed. She said, "I will sew on his garment with a silken thread spun fine A faintly-visible crosslet: there that strong hand of thine, {P. 123} Hero, shall guard mine husband, as he presseth aye to the front, And standeth begirt with foemen in the battle's sternest brunt." "Even this will I do, dear Lady," false Hagen made reply. She thought in her wifely yearning to redeem him from death thereby:-- Ah me, thereby did Kriemhild her lord unto death betray! Most courteous leave took Hagen, and with glad heart hasted away. (C) Then asked of him King Gunther: "What secret hath Hagen learned?" "King, we will ride forth hunting when back is the war-march turned. Now have I gotten the knowledge whereby he shall surely die. Thou, wilt thou appoint this hunting?" Said the King, "Yea, that will I!" Now are the kinsmen of Gunther blithe, and their hearts are light! Never, I ween, thereafter to the end of time shall knight Devise such black betrayal as by these contrived hath been From the trust in knighthood's honour placed by a wife and a Queen!