"Ah Rüdiger, refrain thee!" Prince Gernot pleaded yet. "Never a host before thee with kindlier welcome met Guests, nor with mien so gracious, as we were greeted of thee; And for this, if we win hence living, requited shalt thou be." {P. 299} "Would God, O noble Gernot," in anguish Rüdiger said, "That ye were again in Rhineland, and that I were lying dead With mine honour still unsullied, since I cannot but fall on thee! Never were heroes entreated of friends so evilly!" "Lord Rüdiger, God reward thee," again did Gernot reply, "For the gifts of thy princely bounty! Distressed for thy death am I, In that all that chivalrous spirit should be doomed to perish with thee. Lo here that sword which thou gavest, O noble thane, unto me. Not once this steel hath failed me through this distressful tide; Beneath its undulled edges hath many a hero died: A lordly blade and a goodly, stubborn it is and bright. Of a truth, such royal bounty was never bestowed of knight. Yet, if thou wilt nowise refrain thee, but wilt raise against us thine hand, If thou slaughter these my kinsmen which here beside me stand, Then with thine own good war-glaive I needs must take thy life. Wherefore for thee I sorrow, and for thy noble wife." "May God vouchsafe it, Gernot, and may it so befall, That in all things as thou desirest, so may it be, yea, in all, And that thou and all thy kinsfolk in life may long endure! In you should the trust of the widow and my fatherless child be sure." Spake Giselher, son of Uta, the Prince of Burgundy: "How canst thou so, Lord Margrave? These which have come with me, Unto thee are they all love-bounden. An ill deed dost thou essay! Thy daughter by thee shall be widowed, who scarce is a bride this day. If thou and thy battle-helpers beset me now in fight, What treason unto friendship should this be in all men's sight, For that beyond all other in thee did I confide In the hour wherein I won me thy daughter to be my bride!" "Ah, think thou on thy troth-plight!" spake Rüdiger answering; "And if God shall bring you safely forth hence, O noble king, Requite not thou on my daughter the sin of Rüdiger. By all thy princely honour, be gracious unto her!" {P. 300} "It were meet that I held to the troth-plight," young Giselher replied; "Yet, if mine high-born kinsmen who stand in the hall at my side, If these by thy deed shall perish, snapped is the twofold chain, The love 'twixt me and thy daughter, and the friendship 'twixt us twain."