That, soon as Gelfrat and Elsè fall on our company,

They may fall on their own destruction, so stern shall their welcome be.

They will nowise fail to attack us, for I know how bold is the foe;

Wherefore let ye your horses all softly pacing go,

That none of them all may imagine that we flee before them in dread.”

“Yea, I will follow thy counsel,” the young Prince Giselher said.

“Now by whom to our host on-marching through the land shall the ways be shown?”

They answered: “Our guide shall be Volker, for unto him well-known

Be highways alike and byways, the lordly minstrel-knight.”

And lo, ere any could ask him, he was there, all-armed as for fight,