XLI
"For if you really rued it, never had it been.
I know you have your sister forgotten quite and clean,
So I and my beloved were parted as you see.
Good God! would he had granted the stroke had fall'n on me!"
XLII
Firmly they made denial; Kriemhild at once replied,
"Whoe'er in this is guiltless, let him this proof abide.
In sight of all the people let him approach the bier,
And so to each beholder shall the plain truth appear."
It is a mighty marvel, which oft e'en now we spy,
That, when the blood-stain'd murderer comes to the murder'd nigh,
The wounds break out a-bleeding; then to the same befell,
And thus could each beholder the guilt of Hagan tell.
XLIV
The wounds at once burst streaming fast as they did before;
Those, who then sorrow'd deeply, now yet lamented more.
Then outspake King Gunther, "I give you here to know,
He was slain by robbers; Hagan struck ne'er a blow."
XLV