She spake: "O noble monarch, / take not my life away. The harm that I have done thee / full well will I repay. No more thy royal embraces / by me shall be withstood, For now I well have seen it, / thou canst be lord o'er woman's mood." 679 From the couch rose Siegfried, / lying he left the maid, As if that he would from him / lay his clothes aside. He drew from off her finger / a ring of golden sheen Without that e'er perceived / his practice the full noble queen. 680 Thereto he took her girdle / that was all richly wrought: If from wanton spirit / he did it, know I not. The same he gave to Kriemhild: / the which did sorrow bear. Then lay by one another / Gunther and the maiden fair. 681 Hearty were his embraces / as such king became: Perforce must she relinquish / her anger and her shame. In sooth not little pallid / within his arms she grew, And in that love-surrender / how waned her mighty prowess too! 682 Then was e'en she not stronger / than e'er another bride; He lay with fond embraces / the beauteous dame beside. And had she struggled further, / avail how could it aught? Gunther, when thus he clasped her, / such change upon her strength had wrought. 683 And with right inward pleasure / she too beside him lay In warmest love embracings / until the dawn of day! Meantime now had Siegfried / departure ta'en from there, And was full well received / by a lady debonair. 684 Her questioning he avoided / and all whereon she thought, And long time kept he secret / what he for her had brought, Until in his own country / she wore a royal crown; Yet what for her he destined, / how sure at last it was her own. 685 Upon the morn was Gunther / by far of better mood Than he had been before it; / joy thus did spread abroad 'Mid host of knights full noble / that from his lands around To his court had been invited, / and there most willing service found. 686 The merry time there lasted / until two weeks were spent, Nor all the while did flag there / the din of merriment And every kind of joyance / that knight could e'er devise; With lavish hand expended / the king thereto in fitting wise. 687 The noble monarch's kinsmen / upon his high command By gifts of gold and raiment / told forth his generous hand, By steed and thereto silver / on minstrel oft bestowed. Who there did gift desire / departed thence in merry mood. 688 All the store of raiment / afar from Netherland, The which had Siegfried's thousand / warriors brought to hand Unto the Rhine there with them, / complete 'twas dealt away, And eke the steeds well saddled: / in sooth a lordly life led they. 689 Ere all the gifts so bounteous / were dealt the guests among, They who would straightway homeward / did deem the waiting long. Ne'er had guests of monarch / such goodly gifts before; And so as Gunther willed it / the merry feast at last was o'er. ELEVENTH ADVENTURE How Siegfried came home with his Wife 690