Then spake of Burgundy / Gernot the warrior strong: "Lady, the death of Siegfried / thou mournest all too long. Well will the monarch prove thee / that him he ne'er hath slain. 'Tis heard how that right sorely / thou dost for him unending plain." 1111 She spake: "The king none chargeth: / t'was Hagen's hand that slew. When Hagen me did question / where might one pierce him through, How might e'er thought come to me / that hate his heart did bear? Then 'gainst such thing to guard me," / spake she, "had I ta'en good care. 1112 "And kept me from betraying / to evil hands his life, Nor cause of this my weeping / had I his poor lorn wife. My heart shall hate forever / who this foul deed have done." And further to entreat her / young Giselher had soon begun. 1113 When that to greet the monarch / a willing mind spake she, Him soon with noble kinsmen / before her might ye see. Yet dare might never Hagen / unto her to go: On her he'd wrought sore evil, / as well his guilty mind did know. 1114 When she no hatred meted / unto Gunther as before, By Hagen to be greeted / were fitting all the more. Had but by his counsel / no ill to her been done, So might he all undaunted / unto Kriemhild have gone. 1115 Nor e'er was peace new offered / kindred friends among Sealed with tears so many. / She brooded o'er her wrong. To all she gave her friendship / save to one man alone. Nor slain her spouse were ever, / were not the deed by Hagen done. 1116 Small time it was thereafter / ere they did bring to pass That with the Lady Kriemhild / the mighty treasure was, That from Nibelungen country / she brought the Rhine unto. It was her bridal portion / and 'twas fairly now her due. 1117 For it did journey thither / Gernot and Giselher. Warriors eighty hundred / Kriemhild commanded there That they should go and fetch it / where hidden it did lie, And where the good thane Alberich / with friends did guard it faithfully. 1118 When saw they coming warriors / from Rhine the hoard to take, Alberich the full valiant / to his friends in this wise spake: "We dare not of the treasure / aught from them withhold: It is her bridal portion, / --thus the noble queen hath told. 1119 "Yet had we never granted," / spake Alberich, "this to do, But that in evil manner / the sightless mantle too With the doughty Siegfried / we alike did lose, The which did wear at all times / the fair Kriemhild's noble spouse. 1120 "Now alas hath Siegfried / had but evil gain That from us the sightless mantle / the hero thus hath ta'en, And so hath forced to serve him / all these lands around." Then went forth the porter / where full soon the keys he found. 1121 There stood before the mountain / ready Kriemhild's men, And her kinsmen with them. / The treasure bore they then Down unto the water / where the ships they sought: To where the Rhine flowed downward / across the waves the hoard they brought. 1122