ers bide with her; we will
beg them to bring it to pass that she be our friend, if perchance she
might gladly see us win the hoard."

"I trow not," spake Hagen, "that it will ever hap."

Then he bade Ortwin and the Margrave Gere go to court. When that was
done, Gernot and Giselher, the youth, were also brought. They tried
it with the Lady Kriemhild in friendly wise. Brave Gernot of Burgundy
spake: "Lady, ye mourn too long for Siegfried's death. The king will
give you proof that he hath not slain him. We hear you mourn all time so
greatly."

She spake: "None chargeth him with this. 'Twas Hagen's hand that struck
him, where he could be wounded. When he learned this of me, how could
I think that he did bear him hate? Else had I guarded against this full
well," spake the queen, "so that I had not betrayed his life; then would
I, poor wife, leave off my weeping. I'll never be a friend of him that
did the deed." Then Giselher, the full stately man, began implore.

When at last she spake: "I will greet the king," men saw him stand
before her with his nearest kin, but Hagen durst not come before her.
Well he wot his guilt; 'twas he had caused her dole. When now she would
forego her hate of Gunther, so that he might kiss her, it had befitted
him better had she not been wronged by his advice; then might he have
gone boldly unto Kriemhild. Nevermore was peace between kindred brought
to pass with so many tears; her loss still gave her woe. All, save the
one man alone, she pardoned. None had slain him, had not Hagen done the
deed.

Not long thereafter they brought it to pass that Lady Kriemhild gained
the hoard from the Nibelung land and brought it to the Rhine. It was
her marriage morning gift (1) and was hers by right. Giselher and Gernot
rode to fetch it. Kriemhild ordered eighty hundred men, that they should
bring it from where it lay hid, where it was guarded by the knight
Alberich (2) and his nearest kin. When they saw those from the Rhine
coming for the hoard, Alberich, the bold, spake to his friends: "Naught
of the treasure dare we withhold from her, sith the noble queen averreth
it to be her marriage morning gift. Yet should this never be done,"
quoth Alberich, "but that with Siegfried we have foully lost the good
Cloud Cloak, for fair Kriemhild's love did wear it alway. Now, alas,
it hath fared ill with Siegfried, that the hero bereft us of the Cloud
Cloak and that all this land did have to serve him."

Then went th