tr.).

After banqueting with Etzel the guests were led to their appointed
quarters, far remote from those of their squires; and when the Huns began
to crowd them, Hagen again frightened them off with one of his black looks.
When the hall where they were to sleep was finally reached, the knights all
lay down to rest except Hagen and Volker, who mounted guard, the latter
beguiling the hours by playing on his fiddle.

Once, in the middle of the night, these self-appointed sentinels saw an
armed troop draw near; but when they loudly challenged the foremost men,
they beat a hasty retreat. At dawn of day the knights arose to go to mass,
wearing their arms by Hagen's advice, keeping well together, and presenting
such a threatening aspect that Kriemhild's men dared not attack them.

In spite of all these signs, Etzel remained entirely ignorant of his wife's
evil designs, and continued to treat the Burgundians like friends and
kinsmen.

"How deep soe'er and deadly the hate she bore her kin,
Still, had the truth by any disclos'd to Etzel been,
He had at once prevented what afterwards befell.
Through proud contemptuous courage they scorn'd their wrongs
to tell."
_Nibelungenlied_ (Lettsom's tr.).

[Sidenote: Beginning of hostilities.] After mass a tournament was held,
Dietrich and Ruediger virtuously abstaining from taking part in it, lest
some mishap should occur through their bravery, and fan into flames the
smoldering fire of discord. In spite of all these precautions, however, the
threatened disruption nearly occurred when Volker accidentally slew a Hun;
and it was avoided only by King Etzel's prompt interference.

Kriemhild, hearing of this accident, vainly tried to use it as an excuse to
bribe Dietrich, or his man Hildebrand, to slay her foe. She finally won
over Bloedelin, the king's brother, by promising him a fair bride. To earn
this reward the prince went with an armed host to the hall where all the
Burgundian squires were feasting under Dankwart's care, and there
treacherously slew them all, Dankwart alone escaping to the king's hall to
join his brother Hagen.

In the mean while Etzel was entertaining his mailed guests, and had sent
for his little son, whom he placed in Gunther's lap, telling him that he
would soon send the boy to Burgundy to be educated among his mother's kin.

All admired the graceful child except Hagen, who gruffly re