His folk 's forlorn and joyless; my mistress high is dead,
Helke the full stately my good master's wife,
Whereby now is orphaned full many a fair maiden's life,
"Children of royal parents for whom hath cared her hand:
Thereby doth the country in plight full sorry stand.
Alack, nor is there other that them with love may tend.
I ween the time long distant eke when the monarch's grief shall end."
"God give him meed," spake Gunther, "that he so willingly
Doth offer thus good service to my kinsmen and to me—
I joy that I his greeting here have heard this day—
The which with glad endeavor my kinsmen and my men shall pay."
Thereto the knight of Burgundy, the valiant Gernot, said:
"The world may ever rue it that Helke fair lies dead,
So manifold the virtues that did her life adorn."
