HAGEN (bending over the coffin).
The scarlet blood! I ne'er believed the sign!
But now I see it here with mine own eyes.
KRIEMHILD.
Yet thou canst stand and gaze?
[She springs toward him.]
Away, thou fiend!
Who knows but every drop of blood gives pain,
That thy foul, murderous presence draws from him!
HAGEN.
Fair Kriemhild, if a dead man's blood still boils,
Why may not mine? I am a living man.
KRIEMHILD.
Away! Away! I'd seize thee with my hands,
Had I but some one who would back them off
And cast them from me that I might be clean—
For washing would not cleanse them, even if
I dipped them in thy blood. Away! Away!
So stood'st thou not to deal the deadly blow,
Thy wolfish eyes fixed on him steadily,
With fiendish grin disclosing thy intent
Before the time! But slyly didst thou creep
Behind him, ever shrinking from his gaze,
As wild beasts do that fear the human eye,
And peered to find the spot, that I—Thou dog,
What was thine oath to me?