Then unto Gunther the Margrave, the noble Rüdiger, cried: "If thou meanest that forth of the palace any shall win beside Of such as be fain to serve thee, of this thing do me to wit; So shall our bond of friendship and peace be abidingly knit." Then to his fair bride's father Giselher straightway spake: "Let peace and love between us be a bond that none shall break. The troth-plight of friendship ever do thou and thine maintain. Go fearless forth of the palace, thou and thy vassal-train." When Rüdiger, Lord of the Marches, passed free through the guarded door, There went with him five hundred--yea, peradventure more-- Friends of the Lord of Bechlaren and his trusty vassal-throng: But of that fair faith unto Gunther great scathe befell ere long. Now it happed that a knight of the Hunfolk beheld King Etzel go Safe under Dietrich's shielding, and would fain 'scape even so; But with a stroke so deadly the viol-minstrel swept The head from the skulker's shoulders, that to Etzel's feet it leapt. So when the Lord of Hunland came forth from the battle-wrack, He turned him about, and at Volker he looked in amazement back-- "Woe's me for the guests I have harboured! O day of sorrow and bane Wherein beneath their prowess all these my knights fall slain! Woe's me for my festal high-tide!" that king of nations said: "Within there fighteth a warrior, Volker, a name of dread. Like some wild boar he rageth--and a minstrel him they name! Thank Heaven that safe from the talons of this foul fiend I came! Doom rings and sings in his measures, red are the strokes of his bow; In his notes I hear the death-knell of many a knight laid low. What hath the viol-minstrel against us know I not. Never by guest such sorrow upon mine house was brought!" {P. 274} (C) Straight to their harbourage went they, those noble warriors twain, Rüdiger, Lord of the Marches, and Dietrich, Bern's great thane. Themselves were steadfast-minded aloof from the quarrel to stay, And they straitly commanded their vassals to have nought to do with the fray. (C) Yet had those guests had foreknowledge of the mischief hard by the door, To be wrought by those two heroes, which for them fate had in store, Verily not so lightly had they won that hall-way through Ere those grim portal-keepers with the sword had smitten them too.