Their shields with the red gold gleaming down to the shore bare they; And they laid withal in the galley their goodly war-array; And aboard men led their horses: on the decks now stand their feet-- O me, what bitter weeping brake forth from maidens sweet! Now thronged was many a casement with ladies lovely-eyed, And a great wind lifted the galley as they shook the white sails wide. So out on the Rhine they floated, those proud hearts, bound for the sea. Then answered and spake King Gunther: "Our pilot, who shall he be?" "Even that will I," said Siegfried: "from hence on can I steer Your ship on the flood, stout heroes; thereof have ye no fear; For the printless paths of the waters unto me be throughly known." So are these from the land Burgundian with hearts exultant gone. Then Siegfried set hand to a massy staff such as shipmen wield, And the ship at his mighty thrusting out from the wharf-side reeled. Gunther the dauntless hero on the tiller hath laid his hand: So the glorious war-swift champions swung out clear from the land. Of meats they bare rich plenty, and therewithal good wine, The best that from foaming wine-fats was pressed beside the Rhine; The while their horses rested each tethered safe in stall: The keel slid onward so smoothly, no hurt might to these befall. {P. 52} The wind in the strong-twined sail-ropes drew with unresting might: Twice ten miles onward they fleeted ere sank over earth the night; Down stream so slid they seaward with a breeze that followed fast. --Ah me, but their stalwart labour brought sorrow enow at the last! And now with the twelfth day's dawning, as singeth the ancient lay, The wind in the white sails straining had borne them far on their way Unto Isenstein the fortress, the hold in Brunhild's land. All strange, save only to Siegfried, it seemed to that warrior-band. When its coronal of towers was beheld of Gunther the King, And the land's wide-sweeping marches, he spake sore marvelling: "Make answer to me, friend Siegfried, dost thou know yonder strand? Unto whom appertain these castles, unto whom that lordly land? Never in all my life-days--this thing I needs must own-- Fortress so goodly-builded mine eyes unto me have shown, No, not in any country, as this that here we see. He which could rear it skyward, a mighty man was he!"