Then said King Diderik: “’Tis I,
And this have I to say:
O’er hill and dale, ’neath thy crooked tail,
Thou brought’st me yesterday.”
“O hew me not, King Diderik,
I’ll give thee all my hoard;
’Twere best that we good friends should be,
So cast away thy sword.”
“I pay no trust to thy false device,
Befool me thou wouldst fain;
Full many hast thou destroyed ere now,
Thou never shalt again.”
“Hear me, Sir King Diderik,
Forbear to do me ill,
And thee I’ll guide to thy plighted bride,
She’s hidden in the hill.
“Above by my head, King Diderik,
Is hung the little key;
Below by my feet to the maiden sweet
Descend thou fearlessly.”
“Above by thy head, thou serpent curst,
To begin I now intend;
Below by thy feet, as is full meet,
I soon shall make an end.”
Then first the laidly worm he slew,
And then her young he smote;
But in vain did he try from the mountain to fly,
For tongues of snakes thrust out.
So then with toil in the rocky soil
He dug a trench profound,
That in the flood of serpent blood
And bane he might not be drowned.
Then bann’d the good King Diderik,
On the lion he wroth became:
“Bann’d, bann’d,” said he, “may the lion be,
Confusion be his and shame.”
“With subtle thought the brute has brought
On me this grievous risk;
Which I ne’er had seen had he not been
Graved on my buckler’s disc.”