rom whom the evil cometh? Better for him that it
had remained undone, for mighty is his blame."

Then said false Hagen: "What rue ye? Surely our care is past. Who will
now withstand us? Right glad am I that Siegfried is no more."

Loud was Siegfried's dole for Kriemhild. "Never was so foul a murder
done as thou hast done on me, O king," he said to Gunther. "I saved thy
life and honour. But if thou canst show truth to any on earth, show it
to my dear wife, I beg of thee, for never had woman such woe for one she
loved."

Painfully he writhed as they watched him, and as he became weaker he
spake prophetically.

"Greatly shall ye rue this deed in the days to come," he groaned, "for
know, all of ye, that in slaying me ye have slain yourselves."

Wet were the flowers with his blood. He struggled grimly with death, but
too deep had been the blow, and at last he spake no more.

They laid his body on a shield of ruddy gold and took counsel with one
another how they should hide that the deed had been done by Hagen.

"Sure have we fallen on evil days," said many; "but let us all hide this
thing, and hold to one tale: that is, that as Siegfried rode alone in
the forest he was slain by robbers."

"But," said Hagen of Trony, "I will myself bear him back to Burgundy. It
is little concern of mine if Kriemhild weep."

Kriemhild's Grief

Great was the grief of Kriemhild when she learned of the murder of her
husband, whose body had been placed at her very door by the remorseless
Hagen. He and the rest of the Burgundians pretended that Siegfried had
been slain by bandits, but on their approach the wounds of Siegfried
commenced to bleed afresh in mute witness of treachery. Kriemhild
secretly vowed a terrible revenge and would not quit the land where
her beloved spouse was buried. For four years she spake never a word to
Gunther or Hagen, but sat silent and sad in a chamber near the minster
where Siegfried was buried. Gunther sent for the Nibelungen treasure for
the purpose of propitiating her, but she distributed it so freely
among Gunther's dependents that Hagen conceived the suspicion that her
intention was to suborn them to her cause and foment rebellion within
the Burgundian dominions; therefore he seized it and sank it in the
Rhine, forcing Kriemhild's brethren never to divulge its whereabouts.

It is a circumstance of some importance that when this treasure
enters the land of the Burgundians they take the name of Nibelungs