Then spake the lofty Etzel / unto the margrave: "What aid, O noble Ruediger, / here at thy hands we have! Our country hath so many / already doomed to die, We need not any other: / now hast thou wrought full wrongfully." 2146 Returned the knight so noble: / "My heart he sore hath grieved, And reproached me for high honors / at thy hand received And eke for gifts unto me / by thee so freely made; Dearly for his slander / hath the base traducer paid." 2147 When had the queen come hither / and had likewise seen How on the Hunnish warrior / his wrath had vented been, Incontinent she mourned it, / and tears bedimmed her sight. Spake she unto Ruediger: / "How dost thou now our love requite, 2148 "That for me and thy master / thou bring'st increase of woe? Now hast thou, noble Ruediger, / ever told us so, How that thou life and honor / for our sake wouldst dare. Eke heard I thanes full many / proclaim thee knight beyond compare. 2149 "Of the oath I now remind thee / that thou to me didst swear, When counsel first thou gavest / to Etzel's land to fare, That thou wouldst truly serve me / till one of us were dead: Of that I wretched woman / never stood so sore in need." 2150 "Nor do I, royal mistress, / deny that so I sware That I for thy well-being / would life and honor dare: But eke my soul to forfeit, / --that sware I not indeed. 'Tis I thy royal brothers / hither to this land did lead." 2151 Quoth she: "Bethink thee, Ruediger, / of thy fidelity And oath once firmly plighted / that aught of harm to me Should ever be avenged, / and righted every ill." Replied thereto the margrave: / "Ne'er have I failed to work thy will." 2152 Etzel the mighty monarch / to implore him then began, And king and queen together / down knelt before their man, Whereat the good margrave / was seen in sorest plight, And gan to mourn his station / in piteous words the faithful knight. 2153 "O woe is me most wretched," / he sorrow-stricken cried, "That forced I am my honor / thus to set aside, And bonds of faith and friendship / God hath imposed on me. O Thou that rul'st in heaven! / come death, I cannot yet be free. 2154 "Whate'er it be my effort / to do or leave undone, I break both faith and honor / in doing either one; But leave I both, all people / will cry me worthy scorn. May He look down in mercy / who bade me wretched man be born!" 2155 With many a prayer besought him / the king and eke his spouse, Wherefore was many a warrior / soon doomed his life to lose At hand of noble Ruediger, / when eke did die the thane. Now hear ye how he bore him, / though filled his heart with sorest pain. 2156 He knew how scathe did wait him / and boundless sorrowing, And gladly had refused / to obey the king And eke his royal mistress. / Full sorely did he fear, That if one stranger slew he, / the scorn of all the world he'd bear. 2157