So back to the hall of the palace his guests did the host-king lead: He suffered in his presence no wrathful word or deed. They set the tables in order, the water the pages bare: --Yet many a most stern foeman had the Rhineland warriors there. {P. 259} (C) Albeit it irked King Etzel, a great throng into the hall Followed the lords Burgundian, and weapons had they all. On the guests they scowled their hatred, as they passed to the feastful board; For they burned to avenge their kinsman when time and place should accord. (C) "That ye come to the banquet in armour clad and with sword on thigh," Spake the lord of the land to his people, "is foul discourtesy Now whoso dareth to offer an insult to any guest Shall atone with his head for the outrage. Huns, ye have heard mine hest." Long was it, ere at the banquet seated were all those chiefs, The while the heart of Kriemhild was racked with manifold griefs. "O Prince of Bern," she pleaded, "this day must I of thee Entreat both help and counsel in my sore perplexity." Then unto her the good knight Hildebrand answer made: "Whosoever slayeth the Niblungs doth it without mine aid. What treasures tempt him soever, he taketh his death with the gold. Never yet have they been vanquished, those warriors aweless-bold." (C) "This toucheth none save Hagen, who hath done foul wrong unto me: Siegfried, my lord, my belovèd, he murdered treacherously. Who severeth him from his fellows, my gold shall guerdon him well. My spirit should inly sorrow, if hurt to the rest befell." (C) But the old lord Hildebrand answered: "Nay, how might such thing be That one should slay him only? Surely thyself mayst see That if any beset him, his fellows with him will live or die. Yea, small and great together, if he fell, in death would lie." Then added and spake Lord Dietrich with knightly courtesy: "O mighty Queen, I pray thee, put all such pleading by. Never to me have thy kinsmen done any deed of wrong That I should defy to battle such valiant thanes and strong. For thy prayer, O noble Lady, small honour to thee is therein That so thou devisest mischief against the lives of thy kin. They came under pledge of friendship hither to Etzel's land. It must needs be that Siegfried remaineth unavenged by Dietrich's hand." {P. 260}