“Gladly would we see them,” said Ortwin, the friendly knight;

“Happy were I, fair lady, if we could learn aright

Where, within their kingdom, we might those kings be meeting,

We bring to them an errand; as henchmen of a king, we bear his greeting.”

[1229]

Gu-drun, the high-born lady, thus to the warrior spake:

“This very morning early, ere yet they were awake,

I left them in their castle; in their beds they slumbered.

I know not if thence they have ridden: their men, I think, full forty hundred numbered.”

[1230]