By this were Gunther's liegemen one and all laid low, And all the men of Dietrich. Then did Hildebrand go Unto where lay Wolfhart dying amidst of a pool of blood, And in loving arms he clasped him, that gallant knight and good. Forth of the hall to bear him he would fain have uplifted him; But he needs must leave him lying, so huge he was of limb. And the dying eyes of the hero from the blood looked up in his face, And he knew how fain would his uncle have helped him forth that place. "Nay, uncle well-belovèd," the deadly-wounded saith, "Nought may thine help avail me: it is the hour of death. Nay, guard thee rather from Hagen--this rede, I wot, is good-- For in his heart he beareth a fell and murderous mood. {P. 315} And if friends and kinsmen be minded Wolfhart's death to lament, Unto my nearest and dearest this message by thee be sent:-- Let there be for my sake no weeping, forasmuch as need is none. At the hands of a king in battle a glorious death I won. Such vengeance withal have I taken for my death, in this hall who die, That many wives of warriors shall wail with bitter cry. And if any would know the story of my last fight, fearlessly say That mine own hand, unholpen, did five-score foemen slay." Then on the viol-minstrel, his dead friend, Hagen thought, Whose death by the grey-haired hero Hildebrand had been wrought; And he cried to the old man dauntless: "Thou for my grief shalt pay! Of valiant knights too many hast thou robbed us in this fray!" Then upon Hildebrand rushed he, and smote, and the hall rang wide With the clang of the great sword Balmung, the blade that from Siegfried's side Hagen the grim had taken, when he murdered the Hero of old. But the grey-haired warded him deftly, the old knight fearless-bold. With a battle-glaive broad-bladed Dietrich's liegeman lashed At Hagen the Lord of Troneg, and the edge through the mail-rings crashed; Yet to wound the vassal of Gunther his strength might not prevail; And again did Hagen smite him, and he shore through his strong-knit mail. Now when that grey-haired champion the bite of the sword-edge felt, He feared lest scathe yet greater by Hagen's hand should be dealt. Straightway the liegeman of Dietrich his shield on his back hath cast, And the hero sorely wounded from Hagen's face fled fast. By this of the knights Burgundian was no man left unslain Save only Gunther and Hagen, those noble warriors twain.