2238.
Then spake of Bern the hero: “My trusty lieges dear,
Now be ye not too hasty! what hath befallen here
Was wrought by homeless warriors, by dire distresses driven;
And let them use the freedom that I to them have given.”
2239.
Then spake the gallant Wolfhart: “I will myself be gone
And ask about the matter, what ’tis that they have done.
And then I will report it to you, my master dear,
When yonder I discover what mean the cries we hear.”
2240.
Thereon Lord Dietrich answer’d: “When one has wrath to face,
Full oft, at ill-timed questions, ’tis found to be the case
That warriors too swiftly are apt offence to take:
In truth I will not, Wolfhart, that you the quest should make.”
2241.
Thereon he summon’d Helfrich right speedily to go;
And from the men of Etzel he bade him get to know,—
Or even from the strangers,— what doings there had been;
For ne’er such great lamenting of people was there seen.
2242.
The envoy made inquiry: “What hath there here been done?”
Then answer’d one among them: “Now is for ever gone
All that we had of pleasure in this Hungarian land!—
Here Rüdeger lies slaughter’’d by the Burgundians’ hand.
2243.
“Of those who enter’d with him not one came out again.”
Then verily to Helfrich ne’er could be greater pain.
In sooth he ne’er had carried news so unwillingly:
The messenger to Dietrich went weeping bitterly.
