(C) Never was murder compassed so with villainy fraught,”
Unto the King said Siegfried, “as this that on me ye have wrought!
In the day of your dread I saved you, I helped you in bitterest need:
And for all my service rendered this is mine evil meed!”
Yet again that death-stricken hero spake with an anguished moan:
“If it be possible, Gunther, that to any on earth can be shown
By thee true faith hereafter, let one be commended now,
My dear-loved wife, to thine honour as a king: protect her thou.
May this for her profit avail her, that she is thy sister still.
By all the honour of princes, defend her thou from ill!