ed their service to her, and were subject to her, so that Helca
herself had never ruled so mightily as Kriemhild, that they had all to
serve till her death.

So famous was the court and the country, that each found there, at all
times, the pastime he desired; so kind was the king and so good the queen.

Twenty-Third Adventure

How Kriemhild Thought of Revenging Her Wrong

So, in high honour (I say sooth), they dwelled together till the seventh
year. Meanwhile Kriemhild had borne a son. Nothing could have rejoiced
Etzel more. She set her heart on it that he should receive Christian
baptism. He was named Ortlieb, and glad was all Etzel's land.

For many a day Kriemhild ruled virtuously, even as Helca aforetime.
Herrat, the foreign maiden, that still mourned bitterly for Helca in
secret, taught her the customs of the country. Strangers and friends
alike praised her, and owned that never queen had ruled a king's land
better or more mildly. For this she was famed among the Huns till the
thirteenth year.

When now she saw that none withstood her (the which a king's knights will
sometimes do to their prince's wife), and that twelve kings stood ever
before her, she thought on the grievous wrongs that had befallen her in
her home. She remembered also the honour that was hers among the
Nibelungs, and that Hagen's hand had robbed her of it by Siegfried's
death, and she pondered how she might work him woe.

"It were easily done, could I but bring him hither." She dreamed that
she walked hand in hand with Giselher her brother, and oft, in sweet
sleep, she kissed him. Evil came of it after.

It was the wicked Devil, I ween, that counselled Kriemhild to part from
Gunther in friendship, and to be reconciled to him with a kiss in the
land of Burgundy. She began to wet her vesture anew with hot tears.
Late and early it lay on her heart, how that, through no fault of hers,
she had been forced to wed a heathen. Hagen and Gunther had done this
wrong to her.

Never a day passed but she longed to be revenged. She thought, "Now I am
so rich and powerful that I could do mine enemies a mischief. Were it
Hagen of Trony, I were nothing loth. My heart still yearneth for my
beloved. Could I but win to them that worked me wore, well would the
death of my dear one be avenged. It is hard to wait," said the sorrowful
woman.

All her knights, the king's men, loved her, as was meet. Her chamberlain
was Eckewart, that there