Answered and spake to him Siegfried: "Yea, well do I know all these: The land and its diadem fortress, they be Brunhild's seignories, And Isenstein yon fortress, even that whereof I have told: There many a lovely lady this day shall your eyes behold. Now hearken my counsel, ye heroes: be ye one and all in a tale, And with one accord affirm ye--this only, I trow, shall avail: For if to the presence of Brunhild this day we go, I ween, We must needs be exceeding wary who stand before that queen. When we see that lovely lady amidst her knightly train, One thing, O far-famed heroes, must ye for truth maintain, How that Gunther is my liege-lord, and I his vassal alone: So that which his heart hath longed for shall by this device be won[7]." {P. 53} Then the heroes all consented, even as he counselled, to do. Was none so proud of spirit that he dared say nay thereto. So they spake even after his bidding; and for them full well was it done, When Gunther the King beheld her, Brunhild the lovely one. "Thus I abase me," said Siegfried, "not for thy love alone, But to win thy sister, the fairest of maidens, for mine own. She is unto me as mine own soul, she is dear unto me as my life. Blithe am I to render service that shall get her to me for wife." VII. How the Warrior-maid was won to be Gunther's Bride Now while thus they communed, their galley fled onward, and drew nigh To that seaward-fronting castle; and now did the King espy High up at the open casements full many a maiden fair, And his spirit within him was troubled that he wist not who they were. Then of his comrade Siegfried straightway questioned he: "Look upon yonder maidens, and say, be they known unto thee, Even they which be downward gazing o'er the sea as we draw anigh? Whosoe'er be their lord, of a surety is their bearing proud and high." Then spake the valiant Siegfried: "Look keenly and closely now On the faces of yonder maidens, and then confess to me thou Which wouldst thou take, were the choosing accorded to thee as of right." "Yea, that will I," answered Gunther, that keen and valiant knight. "I mark, of all those fair ones, at yonder casement one; It is she in the snow-white raiment: like unto her is there none. She of mine eyes is the chosen: so sweet is her beauty's pride, That, an I might have the decision, it is she that should be my bride." "By the sight of the eyes hast thou chosen, and a fair choice have they found! Even she is the noble Brunhild, of the beauty world-renowned, {P. 54} The Star of thine heart's strong yearning, the choice of thy mind and thy will." King Gunther gazed, and he deemed her ever sweeter and fairer still.