"For sake of love he bears thee, / lady, doth seek thy hand
One of all the highest / that e'er o'er monarch's land
Did rule in fullest honor, / or ever crown might wear:
High knights do bring the message, / which same thy brother bids thee hear."
Then spake she rich in sorrow: / "Now God forbid to thee
And all I have of kinsmen / that aught of mockery
They do on me, poor woman. / What were I unto one,
Who e'er at heart the joyance / of a noble wife hath known?"
Much did she speak against it. / Anon as well came there
Gernot her brother / and the young Giselher.
In loving wise they begged her / her mourning heart to cheer:
An would she take the monarch, / verily her weal it were.
Yet might not then by any / the lady's mind be bent,
That any man soever / to love she would consent.
Thereon the thanes besought her: / "Now grant the thing to be,
An dost thou nothing further, / that the messenger thou deign'st to see."
"That will I not deny you," / spake the high lady,
"That the noble Ruediger / I full gladly see,
Such knightly grace adorns him. / Were he not messenger,
And came there other hither / by him I all unspoken were."