had fired the hall in hatred. But there came a great voice crying
from the door, "Nay, no toilers are we; wealth is ours when we list,
but now our hearts are set to avenge our kin; now hath the murder
seed sprung and borne its fruit; now the death-doomed and buried work
this deed; now doom draweth nigh thee at the hand of Sigmund the
Volsung, and Sinfiotli, Signy's son."

Then the voice cried again, "Come ye forth, women of the Goths, and
thou, O Signy, my sister, come forth to seek the boughs of the
Branstock." So fled the white-faced women from the fire, and passed
scatheless by Sinfiotli's blade, but Signy came not at all. Then the
earls of Siggeir strove to burst from the hall, but ever the two
glaives at the doorways drove them back to the fire.

And, lo, now came Signy in queenly raiment, and stood before Sinfiotli
and said, "O mightiest son, this is the hour of our parting, and fain
am I of slumber and the end of my toil now I have seen this day. And
the blither do I leave thee because thy days on earth shall be but
few; I charge thee make thy life glorious, and leave a goodly tale."

She kissed him and turned to Sigmund, and her face in the dawn-light
seemed to him fair and ruddy as in the days when they twain dwelt by
the Branstock. And she said, "My youth was happy, yet this hour is
the crown of my life-days which draw nigh their ending. And now I
charge thee, Sigmund, when thou sittest once more a mighty king
beneath the boughs of the Branstock, that thou remember how I loved
the Volsung name, and spared not to spend all that was mine for its
blossoming." Then she kissed him and turned again, and the dawn
brightened at her back, and the fire shone red before her, and so for
the last time was Signy beheld by the eyes of men. Thereafter King