s but their youth that makes them shrink
From blood that is not shed in open fight.

GUNTHER.

It must be so.

HAGEN.

Why he has bought off death
And so ennobled murder.

(_To the serving men_.)

Sound the horns,
And call the hunt together. For 'tis time
That we should eat.

[_The horns are blown_.]

Now take things as they are
And leave it all to me. If thou art not
Offended, or forgivest what is past,
So be it, yet forbid thy servant not
To rescue and avenge thy noble wife!
She will not break the solemn oath she swore.
If she's deceived in her firm trust in us--Her
confidence that we'll redeem the pledge--Then
all the joy of life that once again,
May be aroused within her youthful heart
When shadows deepen and the end is near,
Will be transformed into one dreadful curse,
One final imprecation upon thee!

GUNTHER.

There still is time.

SCENE II

_Enter_ SIEGFRIED _with_ RUMOLT _and huntsmen_.

SIEGFRIED.

I'm here! And now ye hunters,
Where are your spoils? Mine were to follow me
Upon a wagon, but the wagon broke.

HAGEN.

A lion is the game I chase today,
But I have failed to find one.

SIEGFRIED.

That I know,
For I myself have killed him!--Food is spread.
Sound trumpets in his praise who ordered that,
For now we feel the need. Accursed ravens,
Here too? Now blow your bugles till they burst!
I've thrown near every kind of game I killed
At this black flock; at last I threw a fox,
But still they would not fly, and yet I hate
Nothing so much in all the woodland green
As that deep black--'tis like the devil's hue.
The doves have never flocked around me so!
Shall we stay here to pass the night?

GUNTHER.

We thought--

SIEGFRIED.

'Tis well, the choice is fitting, and there gapes
A hollow tree. I'll take it for myself.
For all my life have I been used to that,
And I know nothing better than at night
On soft dry wood to lay my weary head,
And so to dream, half waking, half asleep,
To count the passing hours by the birds
That waken slowly, softly, one by one,
Each singing in his turn. Then tick, tick, tick!
Now it is two. Tock, tock, and one must stretch!
Kiwitt, kiwitt! The sun is blinking now,
And now its eyes are open. Chanticleer
Bids all arise, lest they should sneeze.

VOLKER.

I know!
It is as if Time wakened them himself,