Shall take from such vile fathers a heritage of scorn.
On me you have wreak'd malice where gratitude was due;
With shame shall you be banish'd by all good knights and true.'"
_Nibelungenlied_ (Lettsom's
tr.).

But even in death Siegfried could not forget his beloved wife; and laying
aside all his anger, he pathetically recommended her to Gunther's care,
bidding him guard her well. Siegfried expired as soon as these words were
uttered; and the hunters silently gathered around his corpse, regretfully
contemplating the fallen hero, while they took counsel together how they
might keep the secret of Hagen's treachery. They finally agreed to carry
the body back to Worms and to say that they had found Siegfried dead in the
forest, where he had presumably been slain by highwaymen.

"Then many said, repenting, 'This deed will prove our bale;
Still let us shroud the secret, and all keep in one tale,--
That the good lord of Kriemhild to hunt alone preferr'd,
And so was slain by robbers as through the wood he spurr'd.'"
_Nibelungenlied_ (Lettsom's tr.).

But although his companions were anxious to shield him, Hagen gloried in
his dastardly deed, and secretly bade the bearers deposit Siegfried's
corpse at Kriemhild's door after nightfall, so that she should be the first
to see it there when on her way to early mass. As he fully expected,
Kriemhild immediately recognized her husband, and fell senseless upon him;
but when she had recovered consciousness she declared, while loudly
bewailing her loss, that Siegfried was the victim of an assassination.

"'Woe's me, woe's me forever! sure no fair foeman's sword