VII

"Give ear, my dearest masters, my kin and comrades too,
Go to the church, and welcome, it fits you so to do,
And wail to God in heaven your need, while you have breath,
And know ye this for certain, that at our heels is death.

VIII

"Forget not then, moreover, if aught ye ill have done,
And fervently for pardon pray, every mother's son;
For this I warn you, warriors, nor hold these words for vain,
Ne'er, but God show you mercy, mass will ye hear again."

IX

Then went they to the minster, the princes and their band.
Just at the holy churchyard bold Hagan bade them stand,
And keep all well together, and thus bespake the crew.
"Who knows, to us Burgundians what yonder Huns may do?

[X]

"Take heed, my friends, your bucklers bring down before your feet,
And, if a soul our party in hostile guise should greet,
Requite him with a death-stroke; so seems to Hagan right,
So doing, will each among us be found as fits a knight."

XI