So divers of her kinsmen were traitors again: they brake Their oath; they robbed the widow, and her mighty wealth did they take. Seized by the hand of Hagen were the keys that warded the same. Wroth was her brother Gernot, when he knew that deed of shame. Spake Giselher the young Prince: "Foul wrong hath been done herein By Hagen unto my sister: I will none of the shame and the sin! Yea, he, were he not my blood-kin, should forfeit for this his life!" Brake forth afresh into weeping Siegfried's unhappy wife. Then spake again Prince Gernot: "Or ever such mischief befall Unto us for the sake of the Treasure, it were well that we sank it all In the waters of Rhine, to the end that the curse may cleave unto none!" Unto Giselher came the forlorn one, and to him she made her moan. She cried: "O brother belovèd, thou shouldst take thought for me: A warder and protector of my life and my wealth shouldst thou be!" He answered: "Yea, of a surety thy right shall of me be maintained When we return--for a journey hath been for thy brethren ordained." Then Gunther the King and his kinsmen rode forth of Burgundia-land, Even all that were best and noblest among them, a princely band. But to work the will of his hatred Hagen tarried alone, His undying hatred of Kriemhild: that he did, for her hurt was it done. For ere that the great King Gunther homeward returned again, In those days all that treasure Hagen by force had ta'en. In the river-mere at Lochheim 'neath Rhine he sank it deep. He sowed unto greed--but destruction was the fruit that his hands were to reap. Now before that Hagen of Troneg thus hid the Treasure from sight, Those kinsmen had sworn to each other an oath of awful might, {P. 155} That, while in the land of the living they were, it should hidden abide; So these could not use it, nor give it to any other beside. Thereafter returned those princes with many a noble thane. Then Kriemhild came before them of her grievous wrong to complain: With her ladies she came and her maidens. The wrath of the earls flamed high: They arrayed them against the traitor, and said, "He shall surely die!" With one voice cried they together: "A wicked deed hath he done!" From their anger he needs must hide him for a space, till again he won The princes' pardon and favour, and they yielded to let him live. But henceforth was he hated of Kriemhild with the hate that will never forgive. For now with a new affliction her heart was wrung once more:-- First took they the life of her husband, and now these traitors tore From her hands her possessions! Her mourning was never at a stay Through all the space of her life-tide unto her latest day. From the hour of the death of Siegfried--behold, this witness is true-- Wearily lived she thirteen years of sorrow through, And ever the death of the Hero unto her spirit clung. Unto him was she true and faithful, as many a bard hath sung.