n. All who heard his
question laughed; and Brunhild said,--

"Surely, Sir Siegfried, the old sleep-thorn of Isenstein must have
caught you, and held you in your ship. The games are over, and Gunther,
your liege lord, is the winner."

At this news Siegfried seemed much delighted, as indeed he was. And all
went together to the great banquet-hall, where a rich feast was served
to our heroes and to the worthy earl-folk and warriors of Isenland.

Adventure XV. In Nibelungen Land Again.

When the folk of Isenland learned that their queen had been outwitted
and won by a strange chief from a far-off and unknown land, great was
their sorrow and dismay; for they loved the fair maiden-queen, and they
feared to exchange her mild reign for that of an untried foreigner. Nor
was the queen herself at all pleased with the issue of the late contest.
She felt no wish to leave her loved people, and her pleasant home, and
the fair island which was her kingdom, to take up her abode in a strange
land, as the queen of one for whom she could feel no respect. And every
one wondered how it was that a man like Gunther, so commonplace, and so
feeble in his every look and act, could have done such deeds, and won
the wary warrior-maiden.

"If it had only been Siegfried!" whispered the maidens among themselves.

"If it had only been Siegfried!" murmured the knights and the
fighting-men.

"If it had only been Siegfried!" thought the queen, away down in the
most secret corner of her heart. And she shut herself up in her room,
and gave wild vent to her feelings of grief and disappointment.

Then heralds mounted the swiftest horses, and hurried to every village
and farm, and to every high-towered castle, in the land. And they
carried word to all of Brunhild's kinsmen and liegemen, bidding them to
come without delay to Isenstein. And every man arose as with one accord,
and hastened to obey the call of their queen. And the whole land was
filled with the notes of busy preparation for war. And day by day to the
castle the warriors came and went, and the sound of echoing horse-hoofs,
and the rattling of ready swords, and the ringing of the war-shields,
were heard on every hand.

"What means this treason?" cried Gunther in dismay. "The coy
warrior-maiden would fain break her plighted word; and we, here in our
weakness, shall perish from her wrath."

And even old Hagen, who had never felt a fear when meeting a host in
open battle, was tro