While Mimi and Alberich quarreled, Siegfried came from the dragon's
cave, bearing the helmet and the ring.
He heard no sound save the rustling of the leaves and the song of the
bird.
Again he sat down in the shadow of a tree.
"Little bird, can you not help me to find a true friend?" asked
Siegfried.
"Each year you have your mate and your little birdlings in the nest. You
sing songs with the other birds.
"I have never known a father or a mother, a sister or a brother. I am
lonely.
"Is there nowhere in all this world some one whom I may love? Some one
who will love me?"
Then the wood-bird began to sing a pretty love-song of a maiden sleeping
on the crest of a mountain, encircled by fire.
Sweetly he sang:--"Only he who knows no fear may claim her for his
bride."
Siegfried sprang to his feet. "I do not know fear. I have tried with all
my might to learn it. Oh, help me to find the mountain where
she sleeps!"
The little bird flew away in the opposite direction from where the
wicked Nibelungs stood quarreling, and Siegfried joyously hurried after.