‘But it’s you must warn your two lither lads,
And warn them bitterly,
That if I shall find them two false Kaisers,
High hanged they both shall be.’
Now they are gone into the Kaiser’s palace
To eat the peacock fine,
And they are gone into the Kaiser’s palace
To drink the good Greek wine.
The Kaiser alone, and the old old Balt,
They sat at the cedar board;
And round them served on the bended knee
Full many a Roman lord.
‘What ails thee, what ails thee, friend Athanarich?
What makes thee look so pale?’
‘I fear I am poisoned, thou cunning Kaiser,
For I feel my heart-strings fail.
‘Oh would I had kept that great great oath
I swore by the horse’s head,
I would never set foot on Roman ground
Till the day that I lay dead.
‘Oh would I were home in Caucaland,
To hear my harpers play,
And to drink my last of the nut-brown ale,
While I gave the gold rings away.
‘Oh would I were home in Caucaland,
To hear the Gothmen’s horn,
And watch the waggons, and brown brood mares
And the tents where I was born.
‘But now I must die between four stone walls
In Byzant beside the sea:
And as thou shalt deal with my little Baltung,
So God shall deal with thee.’
The Kaiser he purged himself with oaths,
And he buried him royally,
And he set on his barrow an idol of gold,
Where all Romans must bow the knee.
And now the Goths are the Kaiser’s men,
And guard him with lance and sword,
And the little Baltung is his sworn son-at-arms,
And eats at the Kaiser’s board,