ollowed a storm-cloud, dark as night, and the pleasant shores of Mist
Land were hidden forever behind it. Five days they rode through the
Lowlands, and glad were the Lowland folk with sight of their hero-king.
Two days through the silent greenwood, and one o'er the barren moor, and
three amid vineyards and fields, and between orchards fruitful and fair,
they rode. And on the four and twentieth day they came in sight of the
quiet town, and the tall gray towers, where dwelt the Burgundian kings.
And a great company on horseback, with flashing shields and fine-wrought
garments and nodding plumes, came out to meet them. It was King Gernot
and a thousand of the best men and fairest women in Burgundy; and they
welcomed Siegfried and Kriemhild and their Nibelungen-folk to the fair
land of the Rhine. And then they turned, and rode back with them to the
castle. And, as the company passed through the pleasant streets of the
town, the people stood by the wayside, anxious to catch sight of the
radiant Siegfried on his sunbright steed, and of the peerless Kriemhild,
riding on a palfrey by his side. And young girls strewed roses in their
pathway, and hung garlands upon their horses; and every one shouted,
"Hail to the conquering hero! Hail to the matchless queen!"

When they reached the castle, King Gunther and Giselher met them, and
ushered them into the old familiar halls, where a right hearty welcome
greeted them from all the kingly household. And none seemed more glad
in this happy hour than Brunhild the warrior-queen, now more gloriously
beautiful than even in the days of yore.

When the harvest-moon began to shine full and bright, lighting up the
whole world from evening till morn with its soft radiance, the gay
festival so long looked forward to began. And care and anxiety, and the
fatigues of the long journey, were forgotten amid the endless round of
pleasure which for twelve days enlivened the whole of Burgundy. And the
chiefest honors were everywhere paid to Siegfried the hero-king, and to
Kriemhild the peerless queen of beauty.

Then Queen Brunhild called to mind, how, on a time, it had been told
her in Isenland that Siegfried was but the liegeman and vassal of King
Gunther; and she wondered why such honor should be paid to an underling,
and why the king himself should treat him with so much respect. And as
she thought of this, and of the high praises with which every one spoke
of Kriemhild, her mind became filled with je