Giselher

“ Requite not thou on my daughter the sin of Rüdiger.
By all thy princely honour, be gracious unto her!”
{p. 300}
“It were meet that I held to the troth-plight,” young Giselher replied;
“Yet, if mine high-born kinsmen who stand in the hall at my side,
If these by thy deed shall perish, snapped is the twofold chain,
The love ’twixt me and thy daughter, and the friendship ’twixt us twain.”
“Then God have mercy upon us!” so did the hero groan. ”

“ With a loving kiss the host parted hence; the same did Giselher, as his gentle breeding counseled him. In their arms they clasped fair wives. This many a high-born maid must needs bewail in later times. On every side they opened the casements, for the host with his liegemen would now mount their steeds. I ween their hearts did tell them of the bitter woes to come. Then wept many a dame and many a comely maid. They pined for their dear kinsmen, whom nevermore they saw in Bechelaren. Yet these rode merrily across the sand, down along the Danube to the Hunnish land. ”

“ Then cried the Prince Burgundian, Giselher the thane:
“We may not, O friends belovèd, resting longer remain.
We must needs first hale the corpses forth of the palace-hall;
For our foes, I say of a surety, again upon us will fall.
Nowise it befitteth that longer clogging our feet they lie.
Ere the foe in the storm of battle from us wrest victory,
Deep wounds will we hew full many, and sweet is the thought unto me;
Yea, my heart is set on the war-feast,” said Giselher, “steadfastly.”
“Glad am I that such a war-lord I have!” cried Hagen the grim. ”

“ If none of them were left alive save Uta’s children, my noble brothers, and won they to the air to cool their harness, ye were lost. Bolder knights were never born into the world.”
Then said young Giselher, “Fairest sister mine, right evil I deem it that thou badest me across the Rhine to this bitter woe. How have I deserved death from the Huns? I was ever true to thee, nor did thee any hurt. I rode hither, dearest sister, for that I trusted to thy love. Needs must thou show mercy.” ”

“ But her brother Giselher said, “Sister, something telleth me, and I trow it, that King Etzel will end all thy dole. It seemeth good to me that thou take him to husband, whatso any other may counsel. He may give thee again all that thou hast lost. From the Rhone to the Rhine, from the Elbe to the sea, no king is so mighty as he is. Thou mayest well rejoice that he chooseth thee for his queen.”
She answered, “Dear brother, wherefore counsel me thus? Mourning and weeping suit me better. How could I appear before the knights at court? Had my body ever beauty, it hath lost it.” ”

“ In the kingdom of the Hunfolk, shall we too show faint heart,
And cower away from our sister?—that were a sorry part!”
And scornfully Giselher answered the baron and bitterly:
“If conscience, O friend Hagen, maketh a coward of thee,
Here in the land abide thou, and guard thine health with care,
And let such as fear no dangers with us to my sister fare.”
At his scoffing the hero of Troneg brake into fierceness of wrath—
“I tell thee, that no man fareth with thee on the Hunward path
Who feareth so little as Hagen to Etzel’s palace to ride! ”

“ With helm on head advancing / saw ye Sir Ruediger.
Swords that cut full keenly / the margrave's men did bear,
And eke in hand each carried / a broad shield shining bright.
Boundless was the Fiddler's / sorrow to behold the sight.
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When saw the youthful Giselher / his bride's sire go
Thus with fastened helmet, / how might he ever know
What he therewith did purpose / if 'twere not only good?
Thereat the noble monarchs / right joyous might ye see of mood.
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"I joy for friends so faithful," / spake Giselher the thane,
"As on our journey hither / we for ourselves did gain. ”

“ But stout heroes were not lacking among Dietrich’s warriors, and surely was there never seen so mighty and so dire a combat. Thrice had the fiery Wolfhart encircled the hall, hewing down all before him, when he encountered Giselher. Fiercely the young prince sprang at him, and so truly and so mightily he smote that his sword clove Wolfhart’s shield and hauberk. Yet summoning all his strength, the dying hero dealt Giselher too his death stroke so that he fell lifeless at his feet. ”

“ Then spake of Burgundy / Giselher the thane:
"Well may'st thou now, friend Hagen, / show upright mind again:
For sorrows wrought upon her / may'st thou her well requite.
Howe'er she findeth fortune, / ne'er should it be in thy despite."
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"Yea, hast thou to my sister / so many sorrows done,"
So spake further Giselher, / the full noble thane,
"That fullest reason hath she / to mete thee naught but hate.
In sooth was never lady / than she bereft of joy more great." ”

“ When the knight of Bern heard that, he put one arm round the queen, for she was greatly affrighted, and with the other he led out Etzel. Six hundred good knights followed Dietrich.
Then said noble Rudeger, the Margrave, “If any more of them that love and would serve thee may win from this hall, let us hear it; that peace may endure, as is seemly, betwixt faithful friends.”
Straightway Giselher answered his father-in-law. “Peace and love be betwixt us. Thou and thy liegemen have been ever true to us, wherefore depart with thy friends, fearing nothing.” ”

“ Without tears these faithful kinsmen might not part. Doughty Giselher spake then to his sister: "Whenever, lady, thou shouldst need me, when aught doth trouble thee, let me but know, and I will ride in thy service to Etzel's land." Those who were her kin she kissed upon the mouth. Lovingly they took their leave of Margrave Rudeger's men. The queen had with her many a fair-fashioned maid, full a hundred and four, that wore costly robes of rich, gay-colored silks. Many broad shields were borne close by the ladies on the road, but many a lordly warrior turned then from her. ”

“ That the Margrave in that first onset knew well that his peril was grim.
Gunther and Gernot, for slaughter athirst, let him win his way
Into the hall: like heroes eager they were for the fray.
But Giselher shrank from his coming, for his heart was wrung with pain;
And he would not face him in battle, being loth to slay or be slain.
Now the men of Rüdiger’s war-band swarm up to meet their foes
After their lord undaunted; in the grapple of fight they close;
Keen armour-sundering weapons in mighty hands they wield;
Many a helmet cleave they, they hack through many a shield. ”

“ Again we'll be assailéd, / that would I now in sooth declare.
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"Beneath our feet no longer / here the dead must lie.
But ere in storm of battle / at hand of Huns to die,
We'll deal such wounds around us / as 'tis my joy to see.
Thereon," spake Giselher, / "my heart is fixed right steadfastly."
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"I joy in such a master," / Hagen spake again:
"Such counsel well befitteth / alone so valiant thane
As my youthful master / hath shown himself this day.
Therefor, O men of Burgundy, / every one rejoice ye may." ”

“ With grim and fearful blows the son of fair Uta then greeted the brave knight Wolfhart. However strong the warrior, he might not save his life. Never could so young a king have been more brave; Wolfhart he smote through his stout hauberk, that his blood streamed down from the wound. Unto death he wounded Dietrich's liegeman. None save a champion had done such deed. When brave Wolfhart felt the wound, he let fall his shield and lifted higher in his hand his mighty sword (sharp enow it was) ; through both helmet and armor rings the hero smote Giselher. Thus each did other fiercely unto death. ”

“ And through many a shield and helmet did the flashing steel-edge hew.
“Give back from the door,” cried Volker, “and let these enter in!
Ha, but the prize that they look for not a man of them all shall win!
One and all shall they perish—ay, and that full soon.
With death shall they earn their guerdon, Queen Kriemhild’s golden boon!”
Into the hall of slaughter those men high-hearted pressed,
But soon did many a warrior stoop to the earth his crest.
Fast, fast by the lightning sword-strokes of its warders were they slain.
Well fought the dauntless Gernot, well Giselher the thane. ”

“ This Folker hindered, which pleased her much. "Forsooth, my Lady Brunhild is not so well of mood, that ye may see her," spake the good knight. "Bide the morrow, and men will let you see her." When they weened to gaze upon her, it might not hap.
Then the mighty prince, who liked the envoys well, through his own courtesie, bade his gold be carried forth on the broad shields of which he had great store. Rich gifts were also given them by his kinsmen Giselher and Gernot, Gere and Ortwin. ”

“ As likely as not Yule will mention my name to someone. "A young fellow who seems to see his way pretty clear before him." The other man will repeat it to somebody else, "A young fellow whose way is clear before him," and so I come to the ears of a man who thinks "Just the fellow I want; I must look him up and ask him if he'll do such-and-such a thing." But I should like to see these Yules at home; I must fish for an invitation.'
In the afternoon, Miss Harrow and Marian came at the expected hour. Jasper purposely kept out of the way until he was summoned to the tea-table. ”

“ Gisela, like many women of dominating intellect and personality, had exhausted her power of sex-love with her first unfortunate but prolonged passion, and although she had no hatred of men, and indeed liked many and craved their society, she gave her real sympathies and affections to her women friends. She had no intimates, and this, perhaps, was one secret of her power. A certain aloofness is essential in intellectual leadership. ”

“ A pledge of mutual obligation was, in Anglo-Saxon, gisel, and is still gidsel in the North; in the German, geissel. Thence, far more 365probably than from the older word geisli, a beam, or nimbus, was derived the Frank Gisel, as a maiden’s name. A daughter of Pepin, so called, was offered to Leo X. of Constantinople; and afterwards the daughter of Charles the Simple, who became the pledge of amity between the Karlingen and Northmen, by her marriage with Rollo. She was called by the French Gisèle, by the Normans Gisla, in which same form it has lived on in Friesland and in Norway. ”

“ Gisela smiled and gave him her hand with a graceful spontaneity. "The sense of being watched always shakes the nerves a bit, and I have felt up to nothing myself for a long time. Why did not you come up to the window when you recognized me?" ”

“ The aging man, he knew, idolized Gisela; and her desertion—for so John Wooddrop would hold it—must have torn the Ironmaster. She had, however, been justified in her choice, he contentedly continued his train of thought. Gisela had everything a woman could wish for. He had been a thoughtful husband. Her clothes, of the most beautiful texture and design, were pinned with jewels ”

“ The idea of death, self-inflicted, a flaccid surrender, receded before the flood of his returning pride, confidence. Age, he felt, had not impaired him; if his importance was now but a shell, he would fill it with the iron of actuality; he would place himself and Gisela for ever beyond the threats of accident and circumstance.
XIV GISELA had been to Philadelphia, and she was unusually gay, communicative; she was dressed in lavender-and-rose net, with black velvet, and about her throat she wore a sparkling pendant that he had never before noticed. ”

“ Gibson was announced. It is odd enough to see how the entrance of a person of the opposite sex into an assemblage of either men or women calms down the little discordances and the disturbance of mood. It was the case now; at Mr. Gibson's entrance my lady took off her glasses, and smoothed her brow; Mrs. Kirkpatrick managed to get up a very becoming blush, and as for Molly, her face glowed with delight, and the white teeth and pretty dimples came out like sunlight on a landscape. ”

“ At the Giessbach there was not only geology and divine scenery, enjoyable in lovely weather, but an interesting figure in the foreground, the widowed daughter of the hotel landlord, beautiful and consumptive, but brave as a Swiss girl should be. They all seem to have fallen in love with her, so to speak the young English girls as much as the impressionable art-critic: and the new human interest in her Alpine tragedy relieved, as such interests do, the painfulness of the circumstances through which they had been passing. ”

“ He had his fits of ill-temper beside, when he would spare neither man nor beast. Otherwise, those who knew him well, used to say he had a good heart, when he was neither drunk, nor angry, nor in any way vexed. He had altered much when I came to know him.
One day, the gentlemen had all been out shooting, and with but little success, I believe; anyhow, Mr. Gisborne had had none, and was in a black humour accordingly. He was coming home, having his gun loaded, sportsman-like, when little Mignon crossed his path, just as he turned out of the wood by Bridget’s cottage. ”

“ Gibson replied very quietly,—
'I shall go on coming to see her, and I know you will not forbid my visits. But I shall bring Dr Nicholls with me the next time I come. I may be mistaken in my treatment; and I wish to God he may say I am mistaken in my apprehensions.'
'Don't tell me them! I cannot hear them!' cried the squire. 'Of course we must all die; and she must too. But not the cleverest doctor in England shall go about coolly meting out the life of such as her. I dare say I shall die first. I hope I shall. But I'll knock any one down who speaks to me of the death sitting within me. ”