Who am thus by armèd traitors beset before and behind!
Me from their midst would he rescue, or his own death here would he find.”
Answered the Hunfolk scoffing: “That messenger thou must be,
When into thy brother’s presence we drag a dead man—thee!
Then first shall the liegeman of Gunther gaze on his own heart’s woe.
Thou to the men of King Etzel hast here done mischief enow.”
“Have done with your threats!” he shouted. “Give back, ye traitor brood!
Else many a man’s war-harness will I drench with his own life-blood.
I, even I, to the palace will bear these tidings of bane,
And there of the wrong and the outrage to my lords will I complain.”