There saw he his master sitting with dark forebodings stirred;
But tidings of bitterer sorrow that princely hero heard
When he saw his liegeman standing in crimson-clotted mail;
And with sudden fear heart-stricken he bade him tell his tale:
“Ha, Master Hildebrand, tell me, how cometh this?—thou art wet
With thine own life-blood streaming! Of whom hast thou been beset?
I ween, with the guests Burgundian in yonder hall thou hast fought—
The thing I forbade so straitly! Thou hast set mine best at nought!”
Spake Hildebrand to his liege-lord: “Hagen’s was this deed:
In yonder hall he dealt me the wounds wherefrom I bleed.