Then spake the old she-devil: “Good knights, your hire behold!

If you will now ride thither, my silver and my gold,

That will I give you freely,— but women shall not share it.

I care not if Hettel and Hilda shall rue their wrong, and ne’er again will dare it.”

[739]

Quoth Ludwig, Hartmut’s father: “We from our Norman land

Forthwith must make an inroad: soon will I have at hand

Twenty thousand fighters whom I for war will gather;

With these it will be easy to seize Gu-drun, and bear her from her father.”

[740]