When they saw the corpse of the Margrave held forth in their sight, ah then Utterly it passeth the power of tongue or pen To tell of the wild lamentation that from women and men wailed high, The voice of a people's anguish, an exceeding bitter cry. So passing great was the sorrow of Etzel the mighty King, That, as when a wounded lion maketh the forest ring With his roar, so loud he lamented, and the Queen shrieked forth her pain. So wailed they in measureless dolour for noble Rüdiger slain. XXXVIII. How Dietrich's Men were all slain {P. 306} So measureless-wide the wailing swelled in that dolorous hour, That with cries of lamentation re-echoed palace and tower; And the tumult was heard by a warrior of Bern, who was Dietrich's man, And bearing the heavy tidings to his lord in haste he ran. He spake to the princely hero: "Lord Dietrich, hearken my tale: Through all the years of my life-tide such agony of wail Never I heard upshrieking, as that I have hearkened but now. The King himself, even Etzel, hath come unto scathe, I trow. For what cause else should the people with one voice all make dole? Of the twain one, Etzel or Kriemhild, is no more a living soul. By the wrath of the dauntless strangers have they slept the iron sleep, And countless knightly heroes in measureless anguish weep." But the Lord of Bern made answer: "True liegemen mine, beware Lest in judging ye be o'er-hasty: what desperate deed soe'er Hath been done by the homeless heroes, sore need constraineth their will. My peace with them I plighted--let this advantage them still." Then out spake Wolfhart the dreadless: "Lo, I will hence to the hall: I will ask of sorrow her story, what woe hath chanced to befall, And to thee will I bring the tidings, O well-belovèd chief, So soon as I learn what meaneth that voice of a people's grief," Spake Dietrich the noble: "When heroes in each face look for a foe, And one cometh with rough sharp questions, where a word is like a blow, Then all too quickly enkindled their smouldering anger is: Therefore I will not, Wolfhart, that thou question touching this." Then he commanded Helfric to go swift-hastening, And he bade him ask of the matter from the folk of Etzel the King, {P. 307} Or, as it might be, from the strangers, what hap had befallen there; For never had such lamentation of a multitude thrilled the air.