_Enter SIEGFRIED._
SIEGFRIED.
Ho, ye knights! And hear ye not
The hounds give tongue, and hark! Our youngest hunter
Impatient tries his horn! To horse! Away!
HAGEN.
The day is fair!
SIEGFRIED.
And have you not been told
That bears have ventured in the very stalls,
And that the eagles wait before the doors
And watch when they are opened for a child
That may stray out?
VOLKER.
Indeed that has been known.
SIEGFRIED.
While we were courting no one thought to hunt.
Then come, and we'll drive back the enemy,
And hack and hew him.
HAGEN. Friend, more need have we
To grind our swords and nail our spear-heads firm.
SIEGFRIED.
And why?
HAGEN.
Thou'st dallied all these last few days
With honeyed words, else hadst thou well known why.
SIEGFRIED.
I am about to say farewell, ye know!
Yet speak, what's toward?
HAGEN.
Danes and Saxons too
Again are coming.
SIEGFRIED.
Are the princes dead,
Who swore allegiance to us?
HAGEN.
Nay, not dead;
They're leading on the army.
SIEGFRIED.
Lüdegast
And Lüdeger, who were my prisoners,
Set free without a ransom?
GUNTHER.
Yesterday
Renounced they every oath.
SIEGFRIED.
Their messengers--
You surely must have hewn them limb from limb?
Has every vulture had his share of them?
HAGEN.
So speakest thou?
SIEGFRIED.
Such vipers' messengers
One tramples like a viper. Fiends of hell!
Now feel I my first anger! I believed
That often I knew hatred, but I erred;
'Twas but less love I felt. For I can hate
Nothing but broken vows and treachery,
Hypocrisy and all the coward's sins
That seek their victim as the spider crawls
Upon its hollow legs. How can it be
That such brave men (for surely they were brave),
Could so besmirch themselves? Oh, my dear friends,
Stand not so coldly by and gaze on me
As though you thought me mad, as though I knew
No longer great from small! We've never known
What outrage is till now. Our reckoning
May we strike calmly out to the last score.
Only these two are guilty.
GISELHER.
Shameful 'tis.
The way they praised thee echoes in my ear.
When came this messenger?
HAGEN.
'Twas even now.
Didst thou not see him. He made haste to leave
As soon as he had done his errand here,
Nor tarried for his messenger's reward.
SIEGFRIED.
Oh, shame that you did not chastise the man
For impudence! A raven would have come
And plucked his eyes out, and in very scorn
Have cast them forth again before his lord.
That was the only answer that was due.
This is no lawful feud, this is no war
That right and custom sanction--'tis the chase
Of evil beasts! Nay, Hagen, do not smile!
The headsman's ax should be our weapon now,
So that we should not soil our noble blades,
And, since the ax is iron like the sword,
It were a shame to use it till we find
No rope would be enough to hang the dogs.
HAGEN.
Thou say'st!
SIEGFRIED.
Thou mockest at me as it seems.
'Tis strange, for trifles used to anger thee!
I know thou art an older man than I,
But 'tis not youth that's speaking through me now,
Nor is it indignation that 'twas I
Who begged thy mercy for them. Nay, I stand
For the whole world. As calls a bell to prayer,
So calls my tongue to vengeance every one
Who stands as man amidst his fellow-men.
GUNTHER.
'Tis so.
SIEGFRIED (_to_ HAGEN).
Know'st thou betrayal? Treachery
Gaze on the traitor! Smile then if thou canst.
To open combat dost thou challenge him
And dost o'erthrow him. But thou art too proud,
If not too noble, to thrust home thy sword,
And so thou set'st him free, and givest him
His weapons once again that thou hadst won.
He does not rage at thee and thrust them back;
He gives thee humble thanks and praises sweet
And swears with thousand oaths to be thy man.
But when, the honeyed words still in thine ear,
Thou lay'st thy weary limbs upon thy couch,
Bare and defenseless as a helpless child,
Then creeps the traitor up and murders thee,
And even while thou diest spits on thee.
GUNTHER (_to_ HAGEN).
What dost thou say to that?
HAGEN (_to_ GUNTHER).
This noble wrath
Gives me such courage that I ask our friend
If he will grant us escort yet once more.
SIEGFRIED.
With my own Nib'lungs will I go alone,
For it is by my fault this trouble comes
To ye again! Howe'er I longed to show
My bride unto my mother and to win
For the first time her undivided praise,
It may not be while yet these hypocrites
Have ovens for their bread and flowing springs
To slake their thirst! I will at once put off
My homeward journey, and I promise you
That I will take them living, and henceforth
Before my castle shall they lie in chains
And bay like hounds whene'er I come or go,
Since, as it seems, they have the souls of dogs!
[_He hastens away_.]