“With ample safety ye may ride
Into King Etzel’s land:
I pledge on this my truth and troth,
And therewithal my hand,
“That never noble king’s array
Did win in foreign State,
Such honor and such lofty fame,
Believe—such is your fate.”
Overjoyed at these words, Hagen restored to the nymphs their strange garments; and no sooner had they donned them than straightway they became white swans.
Then spake the other water-nymph,