But again in amaze spake Dietrich: "How could it so betide That they, those goodly heroes, should one and all have died Slain by men battle-weary and in sore extremity? Mine evil star hath done it, else death must have passed them by! Since then mine evil fortune hath spared me not this stroke, Answer me--live yet any of those Burgundian folk?" And Master Hildebrand answered: "God knoweth, there is none Save Gunther the king high-hearted and Hagen--these alone," "Woe's me, belovèd Wolfhart! Of thee am I left forlorn? Well may I now repent me that ever I was born! And Siegstab and Wolfwein have fallen, and dead is the good Wolfbrand! Who then shall be mine helpers of the sons of Amelung-land? Helfrich the valiant also, by death from me is he torn? Perished have Gerbert and Wichart--when shall I cease to mourn? This is of all the joyance of life my latest day! Alas that the anguish-stricken sheer sorrow may not slay!" XXXIX. How Gunther, Hagen, and Kriemhild were slain {P. 318} Now for his battle-harness Lord Dietrich's self hath gone, And Hildebrand the grey-haired helped him to gird it on. So loud was the voice of the wailing of that most mighty man, That through all the shuddering palace the shivering echoes ran. But at last he refrained him, and hardened his hero-heart again, And in sternest wrath he armed him, that good and gallant thane; And a shield of the steel tough-welded he took in his sinewy hand, And forth of the palace he hied him with Master Hildebrand. Then out spake Hagen of Troneg: "I see draw nigh to the hall Dietrich the great war-captain. Surely on us will he fall To avenge the grievous evil that we unto him have done. We will see of us two warriors which is the mightier one. Ay, what though yonder champion, Dietrich the Lord of Bern, Account him never so stalwart, a foeman never so stern, If he think upon us to avenge him for that hath befallen him, Even I am he shall withstand him." Thus spake Hagen the grim.