g his hand_).

I am prepared.

HAGEN.

Ye need not take the oath.

[_He goes forward to_ KRIEMHILD _in the
cathedral._]

Thou see'st, my kin will clear me when I will,
'Tis needless that I now approach the bier,
Yet will I stand there and will be the first!

[_He walks slowly to the bier._]

UTE.

Oh Kriemhild, do not look.

KRIEMHILD.

Perchance he lives!
My Siegfried! Had he strength to speak one word
Or gaze but once upon me!

UTE.

My poor child,
It is but nature, moving once again.
Ghastly enough!

CHAPLAIN.

It is the hand of God,
That softly stirs once more these sacred springs
Because He must inscribe the sign of Cain.

HAGEN (_bending over the coffin_).

The scarlet blood! I ne'er believed the sign!
But now I see it here with mine own eyes.

KRIEMHILD.

Yet thou canst stand and gaze?

[_She springs toward him._]

Away, thou fiend!
Who knows but every drop of blood gives pain,
That thy foul, murderous presence draws from him!

HAGEN.

Fair Kriemhild, if a dead man's blood still boils,
Why may not mine? I am a living man.

KRIEMHILD.

Away! Away! I'd seize thee with my hands,
Had I but some one who would back them off
And cast them from me that I might be clean--
For washing would not cleanse them, even if
I dipped them in thy blood. Away! Away!
So stood'st thou not to deal the deadly blow,
Thy wolfish eyes fixed on him steadily,
With fiendish grin disclosing thy intent
Before the time! But slyly didst thou creep
Behind him, ever shrinking from his gaze,
As wild beasts do that fear the human eye,
And peered to find the spot, that I--Thou dog,
What was thine oath to me?

HAGEN.

To shelter him
From fire and water.

KRIEMHILD.

Not from human foes?

HAGEN.

That too, and I'd have done it.

KRIEMHILD.

Thou didst mean
To murder him thyself?

HAGEN.

To punish him!

KRIEMHILD.

Was murder ever called a punishment
Since heaven and earth began?
HAGEN. I'd challenged him
To mortal combat, thou may'st take my word,
But none might tell the hero from the dragon,
And dragons must be killed. So proud a knight,
Why did he hide him in the dragon's skin!

KRIEMHILD.

The dragon's skin! He had to slay him first,
And with the dragon slew he all the world!
The forest depths