hat we may tell thy friends yonder?"

King Etzel said, "Next midsummer."

"Thy command shall be obeyed," answered Werbel.

The queen bade summon the envoys secretly to her chamber, and spake with
them. Little good came thereof. She said to the two envoys, "Ye shall
deserve great reward if ye do my bidding well, and deliver the message
wherewith I charge you, at home, in my land. I will make you rich in
goods, and give you sumptuous apparel. See that ye say not to any of my
friends at Worms, by the Rhine, that ye have ever seen me sad of my
cheer, and commend my service to the heroes bold and good. Beg them to
grant the king's prayer and end all my sorrow. The Huns deem me without
kin. Were I a knight, I would go to them myself. Say to Gernot, my
noble brother, that none is better minded to him in the world than I.
Bid him bring here our best friends, that we win honour. And tell
Giselher to remember that never, through his fault, did ill betide me;
for which reason mine eyes are fain to behold him. Evermore I would
serve him. Tell my mother, also, what worship is mine. And if Hagen of
Trony tarry behind, who shall lead them through the land? From a child
up he hath known the roads hither to the Huns."

The envoys guessed not why she could not leave Hagen of Trony at the
Rhine. They knew it afterward to their cost, for, through him, many a
knight was brought face to face with grim death.

Letters and greetings were given to them. They rode forth rich in goods,
that they might live merrily by the way. They took leave of Etzel and
his fair wife. Their bodies were adorned with goodly vesture.

Twenty-Fourth Adventure

How Werbel and Schwemmel Brought the Message

When Etzel sent his fiddlers to the Rhine, the news flew from land to
land. By means of swift messengers, he invited guests to his hightide.
There many met their death.

The envoys rode from the country of the Huns to the Burgundians, even to
the three noble kings and their men, to bid them to Etzel's court, and
hasted on the way. They came to Bechlaren, where they were well seen to,
and nothing lacked to their entertainment. Rudeger and Gotelind, and the
Margrave's child also, sent their greeting by them to the Rhine. Not
without gifts went Etzel's men forth, that they might fare the better on
the road. Rudeger commended him to Uta and her sons; never Margrave was
so true to them as he. To Brunhild, likewise, they commended thei