Then spake Prince Gernot his counsel: “Let our guests depart as now:
And in forty days—proclaim it, and to all men publish it thou—
Unto a festal high-tide shall all return once more;
For healed by then shall be many that now lie wounded sore.”
Then made his request Prince Siegfried: “I pray you, let me depart.”
But when to the Rhine-lord Gernot was known the desire of his heart,
He besought him in loving fashion for a season to tarry still:—
Sooth, but for the love of his sister, he had swayed him not to his will!
To a prince so royal might no man for his measureless desert
Proffer reward; but his guerdon was the love of Gunther’s heart,