thy
wounds that I may help thee."

"Nay," he cried, leaping to his feet; "my wounds are slight and I
should still have been fighting my foes, but my sword and shield were
shattered and I was left at their mercy. They were many and I could
not fight them single-handed and weaponless. I must now be on my way.
I am but an ill-fated fellow, and I would not bring my bad luck upon
thee and thy house." He started to go out of the door.

"Thou canst not bring ill-fate to me," she answered, looking at him
sadly. "I am not happy here."

"If that be true," he said, pausing to regard her tenderly, "then I
shall remain," and he turned back into the house.

_Scene II_

At that very moment, Hunding was heard returning. Sieglinde, hearing
him lead his horse to the stable, opened the door for him, as was her
wont, and waited for him to come in. When Hunding finally appeared, he
paused at seeing Siegmund.

"Whom have we here?" he asked his wife, suspiciously.

"A wounded man whom I found lying upon the hearth-stone. I gave him
water, and welcomed him as a guest." Hunding, hearing this, hung his
sword and shield upon a branch of the dead ash tree, and taking off
his armour, handed it to Sieglinde.

"Set the meal for us," he said to her in a surly tone, looking sharply
at the stranger. Sieglinde hung the armour upon the tree and began to
prepare the meal.

"You seem to have come a long way," said Hunding at last to Siegmund.
"Have you no horse?"

"I have come over mountain and through brake. I know not whither the
journey has led me. I would find that out from thee; and may I ask who
gives me shelter?"

"I am Hunding whose clan reaches far, and who has many kinsmen. Now
for thyself?"

"I, too, have kinsmen who war for freedom. My father was a wolf and my
mother is dead. I am the son of the Waelsungs--a warring race. Once my
father, the wolf, and I wandered together in the forest. We went to
hunt, and upon our return we found our hut laid waste and my mother
burned to ashes. Then, sadly, my father and I went forth again."

"I have heard of this wolfling," Hunding answered, frowning. "A wild
and wolfish race, truly! Tell me, stranger, where roams thy father,
now?"

"He became the game of the Neidlings--they who killed my mother; but
many a Neidling has been destroyed in his pursuit. At last my father
must have been slain. I was torn from him, but later escaped from my
captors and went in search of him. I found only his