to Siegfried; and Gunther said,--

"Most noble friend, you hear what word these traitorous kings dare send
us. Now, we remember, that, long years ago, you led us against them,
and gave us a glorious victory. We remember, too, how, by your counsel,
their lives were spared, and they were sent home with costly gifts. It
is thus they repay our kindness. What answer shall we send them?"

"Say that we will fight," answered Siegfried at once. "I will lead my
brave Nibelungens against them, and they shall learn how serious a thing
it is to break an oath, or to return treason for kindness."

The news soon spread through all the town and through the country-side,
that Leudiger and Leudigast, with fifty thousand men, were marching into
Burgundy, and destroying every thing in their way. And great flight and
confusion prevailed. Men and women hurried hither and thither in dismay.
Soldiers busily sharpened their weapons, and burnished their armor,
ready for the fray. Little children were seen cowering at every sound,
and anxious faces were found everywhere.

When Queen Kriemhild saw the busy tumult, and heard the shouts and cries
in the street and the courtyard, and learned the cause of it all, she
was greatly troubled, and went at once to seek Siegfried. When she found
him, she drew him aside, and besought him not to take part in the war
which threatened, but to hasten with all speed back to their own loved
Nibelungen Land.

"And why would my noble queen wish me thus to play the part of a coward,
and to leave my friends when they most need my help?" asked Siegfried in
surprise.

"I would not have you play the coward," answered Kriemhild, and hot
tears stood in her eyes. "But some unseen danger overhangs. There are
other traitors than Leudiger and Leudigast, and men to be more feared
than they. Last night I dreamed a fearful dream, and it follows me
still. I dreamed that you hunted in the forest, and that two wild boars
attacked you. The grass and the flowers were stained with your gore,
and the cruel tusks of the beasts tore you in pieces, and no one came
to your help. And I cried out in my distress, and awoke; and the
storm-clouds roared and threatened, and the hail pattered on the roof,
and the wind and rain beat against the windowpanes. Then I slept again,
and another dream, as fearful as the first, came to me. I dreamed that
you rode in the forest, and that music sprang up in your footsteps, and
all things living called yo