ear, quick vengeance
would have overtaken him. In vain did the dying king look for his bow
and his trusty sword: too safely had they been hidden. Then, though
death was fast dimming his eyes, he seized his heavy shield, and sprang
after the flying Hagen. Swift as the wind he followed him, quickly he
overtook him. With his last strength he felled the vile wretch to the
ground, and beat him with the shield, until the heavy plates of brass
and steel were broken, and the jewels which adorned it were scattered
among the grass. The sound of the heavy blows was heard far through the
forest; and, had the hero's strength held out, Hagen would have had his
reward.[EN#32] But Siegfried, weak and pale from the loss of blood, now
staggered, and fell among the trampled flowers of the wood.

Then with his last breath he thus upbraided his false friends:--

"Cowards and traitors, ye! A curse shall fall upon you. My every care
has been to serve and please you, and thus I am requited. Bitterly shall
you rue this deed. The brand of traitor is set upon your foreheads, and
it shall be a mark of loathing and shame to you forever."

Then the weak old Gunther began to wring his hands, and to bewail the
death of Siegfried. But the hero bade him hush, and asked him of what
use it was to regret an act which could have been done only by his leave
and sanction.

"Better to have thought of tears and groans before," said he. "I have
always known that you were a man of weak mind, but never did I dream
that you could lend yourself to so base a deed. And now, if there is
left aught of manliness in your bosom, I charge you to have a care for
Kriemhild your sister. Long shall my loved Nibelungen-folk await my
coming home."

The glorious hero struggled in the last agony. The grass and flowers
were covered with his blood; the trees shivered, as if in sympathy
with him, and dropped their leaves upon the ground; the birds stopped
singing, and sorrowfully flew away; and a solemn silence fell upon the
earth, as if the very heart of Nature had been crushed.

And the men who stood around--all save the four guilty ones--bowed their
heads upon their hands, and gave way to one wild burst of grief. Then
tenderly they took up Siegfried, and laid him upon a shield, with his
mighty weapons by him. And, when the sorrowing Night had spread her
black mantle over the mid-world, they carried him silently out of the
forest, and across the river, and brought him, by Gunt