Ere from the Rhine for ever their eastward steps they bent,
They to the Huns beforehand swift messengers had sent,
To tell the stout King Etzel what Rudeger had done,
And how he peerless Kriemhild for his lord had woo'd and won.
CXLIX
The messengers spurr'd hotly; no time had they to lose;
They rode at once for honor and the guerdon of good news.
When home they brought the tidings, and all the truth made clear,
Word surely never sounded so sweet in Etzel's ear.
CL
For joy of such fair tidings the king was pleas'd to give
The messengers such presents, that thenceforth each might live
Merrily for ever, e'en to his dying day.
Through love the king's long sorrow vanish'd at once away.
TWENTY-FIRST ADVENTURE
HOW KRIEMHILD DEPARTED
I
Enough now of the messengers; we'll tell you, as we may,
How the queen through the country went riding on her way,
And where Gernot and Giselher, who forth with her had passed,
And serv'd her well and truly, took leave of her at last.