Now they that before wept sorely into wilder weeping burst.
But answered and spake King Gunther: “Now hearken, the truth is this—
He was set on and slain of robbers: no deed of Hagen it is.”
But Kriemhild replied: “These robbers but all too well I know!
God give to the hands of his kinsmen vengeance on his foe!
Thou, Gunther, and thou, Hagen, of you was the foul deed done!”
Surged forward the vassals of Siegfried, fierce-eager to fall on.
But Kriemhild spake: “Unto mourning be this hour sacred, I pray!”
Then two beside of her kinsmen drew nigh where the dead man lay,
Even her brethren, Gernot and the stripling Giselher: