The hero wore a tunic of black velvet, a riding cap of sable. By his side hung his good sword Balmung, a quiver thrust through his girdle was filled with arrows, the shafts of which were golden.
Before he reached the camp, Siegfried again alighted and loosed the great bear, and bewildered, the brute sprang forward into the camp kitchen.
Up sprang the scullions from the fire, kettles were toppled over, the fire was put out, fish, fowl, meat, all lay in the black and smoking ashes.
Then Gunther and his merry huntsmen chased the huge bear into the wood, and while all were swift, none was so swift as Siegfried. His good sword Balmung flashed in the air, and the bear was slain and carried back to the camp.
Now Hagen had arranged the feast for the huntsmen, and for his own purpose he had ordered no wine.
'Where are the cupbearers?' cried Siegfried, who was thirsty after the day's sport.
'They have gone across the Rhine whither they thought we hunted,' said Hagen, the false knight. 'But there is a spring of cold water a little way off, thither may we go to quench our thirst.'
Siegfried soon rose to go to the fountain. Then Hagen drew near and said, 'Ofttimes I have heard that thou art sure and swift of foot. Wilt thou race with me to the spring?'
'If thou art at the fountain before me,' said the mighty hero, 'I will even lay myself at thy feet.'
Gunther heard Siegfried's words and shuddered. Yet now he dared not save the hero from his foe.