The queen went to Hagen, and spake angrily to the knight. "Give me back
what thou hast taken from me, and ye may both win back alive to Burgundy."

But grim Hagen answered, "Thy words are wasted, noble queen. I have
sworn to show the hoard to none. While one of my masters liveth, none
other shall have it."

"I will end the matter," said the queen. Then she bade them slay her
brother, and they smote off his head. She carried it by the hair to the
knight of Trony. He was grieved enow.

When the sorrowful man saw his master's head, he cried to Kriemhild,
"Thou hast wrought all thy will. It hath fallen out as I deemed it
must. The noble King of Burgundy is dead, and Giselher the youth, and
eke Gernot. None knoweth of the treasure now save God and me. Thou
shalt never see it, devil that thou art."

She said, "I come off ill in the reckoning. I will keep Siegfried's
sword at the least. My true love wore it when I saw him last. My
bitterest heart's dole was for him."

She drew it from the sheath. He could not hinder it. She purposed to
slay the knight. She lifted it high with both hands, and smote off his
head.

King Etzel saw it, and sorrowed. "Alack!" cried the king, "The best
warrior that ever rode to battle, or bore a shield, hath fallen by the
hand of a woman! Albeit I was his foeman, I must grieve."

Then said Master Hildebrand, "His death shall not profit her. I care not
what come of it. Though I came in scathe by him myself, I will avenge
the death of the bold knight of Trony."

Hildebrand sprang fiercely at Kriemhild, and slew her with his sword.
She suffered sore by his anger. Her loud cry helped her not.

Dead bodies lay stretched all over. The queen was hewn in pieces.
Etzel and Dietrich began to weep. They wailed piteously for kinsmen
and vassals. Mickle valour lay there slain. The folk were doleful
and dreary.

The end of the king's hightide was woe, even as, at the last, all joy
turneth to sorrow.

I know not what fell after. Christian and heathen, wife, man, and maid,
were seen weeping and mourning for their friends.

I WILL TELL YOU NO MORE. LET THE DEAD LIE. HOWEVER IT FARED AFTER
WITH THE HUNS, MY TALE IS ENDED. THIS IS THE FALL OF THE NIBELUNGS.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fall of the Niebelungs, by Unknown

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