“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
Shiver’d thy failing buckler; ’twas murder stopp’d thy breath. 
Oh that I knew who did it! death I’d requite with death!’”
Nibelungenlied (Lettsom’s
tr.).

By her orders a messenger was sent to break the mournful tidings to the still sleeping Siegmund and the Nibelungs.  They hastily armed and rallied about her, and would have fallen upon the Burgundians, to avenge their master’s death, had she not restrained them, bidding them await a suitable occasion, and promising them her support when the right time came.

[Sidenote:  Detection of Siegfried’s murderer.] The preparations for a sumptuous funeral were immediately begun, and all lent a willing hand, for Siegfried was greatly beloved at Worms.  His body was therefore laid in state in the cathedral, where all came to view it and condole with Kriemhild; but when Gunther drew near to express his sorrow, she refused to listen to him until he promised that all those present at the hunt should touch the body, which at the murderer’s contact would bleed afresh.  All stood the test and were honorably acquitted save Hagen, at whose touch Siegfried’s blood began to flow.

“It is a mighty marvel, which oft e’en now we spy,
That when the blood-stain’d murderer comes to the murder’d nigh,
The wounds break out a-bleeding; then too the same befell,
And thus could each beholder the guilt of Hagen tell.”
Nibelungenlied (Lettsom’s
tr.).

Once more Kriemhild restrained the angry Nibelung warriors from taking immediate revenge, and, upheld by Gernot and Giselher, who really sympathized with her grief, she went through the remainder of the funeral ceremonies and saw her hero duly laid at rest.

Kriemhild’s mourning had only begun.  All her days and nights were now spent in bitter weeping.  This sorrow was fully shared by Siegmund, who, however, finally roused himself and proposed a return home.  Kriemhild was about to accompany him, when her relatives persuaded her to remain in Burgundy.  Then the little band which had come in festal array rode silently away in mourning robes, the grim Nibelung knights muttering dark threats against those who had dealt so basely with their beloved master.