aces were to be seen, and so they
made good their flight.

But the Huns, roused from their drunken sleep, gazed around stupidly
and cried loudly for Walthar, their boon companion as they thought,
but nowhere was he to be found. The queen, too, missed Hildegund and,
realizing that the pair had escaped, made loud wail through the palace.
Angry and bewildered, Attila could touch neither food nor drink. Enraged
at the manner in which he had been deceived, he offered great gifts
to him who would bring back Walthar in chains; but none of the Hunnish
champions considered themselves fit for such a task, and at length the
hue and cry ceased, and Walthar and Hildegund were left to make their
way back to Aquitaine as best they could.

Full of the thought that they were being pursued, Walthar and the maiden
fled onward. He killed the birds of the wood and caught fish to supply
them with food. His attitude to Hildegund was one of the deepest
chivalry, and he was ever mindful for her comfort. Fourteen days had
passed when at last, issuing from the darkness of the forest, they
beheld the silver Rhine gleaming in the sunlight and spied the towers
of Worms. At length he found a ferry, but, fearing to make gossip in
the vicinity, he paid the ferryman with fishes, which he had previously
caught. The ferryman, as it chanced, sold the fish to the king's cook,
who dressed them and placed them before his royal master. The monarch
declared that there were no such fishes in France, and asked who had
brought them to Worms. The ferryman was summoned, and related how he had
ferried over an armed warrior, a fair maiden, and a great war-horse with
two chests. Hagen, who sat at the king's table, exclaimed full joyfully:

"Now will I avow that this is none other than my comrade Walthar
returning from the Hunnish land."

"Say ye so?" retorted King Gunther. "It is clear that by him the
Almighty sends me back the treasure of my father Gibicho."

So ordered he a horse to be brought, and taking with him twelve of his
bravest chiefs besides Hagen, who sought in vain to dissuade him, he
went in search of Walthar.

The Cave

Journeying from the banks of the Rhine, Walthar and the maiden had by
this time reached the forest of the Vosges. They halted at a spot where
between two hills standing close together is situated a pleasant and
shady cave, not hollowed out in the earth, but formed by the beetling of
the rocks, a fit haunt for bandits, carpeted wit