Seite:Marsh Wolfe of the knoll.djvu/237

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A LAY OF THE DANUBE.

On those banks the angry nations gathered them of old,
Northern hordes and Southern legions joined their battles
    bold,
Till the dark, cold waves were flowing red and warm with
    blood —
Hideous Hun and haughty Roman, how they choked the
    crimson flood !

There, the sweet old rhymers tell us, Etzel held his court,
When he made, at Kriemhild's suing, feast for high disport,
Bidding fair her royal brothers from the distant Rhine —
Ah ! ill-fated Nibelungen, wherefore did ye not divine

That an injured, vengeful woman, — though her message fell
Loving as became a sister — could not mean you well !
All in vain the pitying mermaids warned them hence
   to fly −
There, betrayed, the homelorn heroes died as heroes still
   should die !