Thereto replied Sir Siegfried: / "Small merit here is thine.
Good seven horses laden / with mead and sparkling wine
Should hither have been conducted. / If aught the same denied,
Then should our place of meeting / have nearer been the Rhine beside."
Then spake of Tronje Hagen: / "Ye noble knights and bold,
I know here nigh unto us / a spring that's flowing cold.
Be then your wrath appeaséd, / and let us thither go."
Through that same wicked counsel / came many a thane to grievous woe.
Sore was the noble Siegfried / with the pangs of thirst:
To bid them rise from table / was he thus the first.
He would along the hillside / unto the fountain go:
In sooth they showed them traitors, / those knights who there did counsel so.
On wagons hence to carry / the game they gave command
Which had that day been slaughtered / by Siegfried's doughty hand.
He'd carried off the honors, / all who had seen did say.
Hagen his faith with Siegfried / soon did break in grievous way.
When now they would go thither / to where the linden spread,
Spake of Tronje Hagen: / "To me hath oft been said,
That none could follow after / Kriemhild's nimble knight
Or vie with him in running: / would that he'd prove it to our sight!"