"Alas 'tis no such case here, / O high and royal dame. Dared I but give the lie to / one of thy lofty name, Thou hast in fiendish manner / Ruediger belied. He and all his warriors / have laid all thoughts of truce aside. 2231 "With so good heart obeyed he / his royal master's will That he and all his followers / here in death lie still. Look now about thee, Kriemhild, / who may thy hests attend. Ruediger the hero / hath served thee faithful to the end. 2232 "Wilt thou my words believe not, / to thee shall clear be shown." To cause her heart a sorrow, / there the thing was done. Wound-gashed they bore the hero / where him the king might see. Unto the thanes of Etzel / ne'er might so great sorrow be. 2233 When did they the margrave / a corse on bier behold, By chronicler might never / written be nor told All the wild lamenting / of women and of men, As with grief all stricken / out-poured they their hearts' sorrow then. 2234 Royal Etzel's sorrow / there did know no bound. Like to the voice of lion / echoing rang the sound Of the king's loud weeping, / wherein the queen had share. Unmeasured they lamented / the death of noble Ruediger. THIRTY-EIGHTH ADVENTURE How all Sir Dietrich's Knights were Slain 2235 On all sides so great sorrow / heard ye there around, That palace and high tower / did from the wail resound. Of Bern a man of Dietrich / eke the same did hear, And speedily he hastened / the tidings to his lord to bear. 2236 Spake he unto his master: / "Sir Dietrich give me ear. What yet hath been my fortune, / never did I hear Lamenting past all measure, / as at this hour hath been. Scathe unto King Etzel / himself hath happened, I ween. 2237 "Else how might they ever / all show such dire need? The king himself or Kriemhild, / one of them lieth dead, By the doughty strangers / for sake of vengeance slain. Unmeasured is the weeping / of full many a stately thane." 2238 Then spake of Bern Sir Dietrich: / "Ye men to me full dear, Now haste ye not unduly. / The deeds performed here By the stranger warriors / show sore necessity. That peace with them I blighted, / let it now their profit be." 2239 Then spake the valiant Wolfhart: / "Thither will I run To make question of it / what they now have done, And straight will tidings bring thee, / master full dear to me, When yonder I inform me, / whence may so great lamenting be." 2240 Answer gave Sir Dietrich: / "Fear they hostility, The while uncivil questioning / of their deed there be, Lightly are stirred to anger / good warriors o'er the thing. Yea, 'tis my pleasure, Wolfhart, / thou sparest them all such questioning. 2241 Helfrich he then commanded / thither with speed to go That from men of Etzel / he might truly know, Or from the strangers straightway, / what thing there had been. As that, so sore lamenting / of people ne'er before was seen. 2242