him by the hand to the vault where she was supposed to lie; and, when Fleur read the golden letters that told how Blanchefleur lay within the tomb, he thrice fell fainting on it, and when at length his spirit came again, he cried, kneeling upon the tomb, 'Alas, my Blanchefleur! why have you forsaken me? We who lived and loved, should we not have died together? Woe, woe is me thus left without my love; Oh, cruel Death, to take my dear away! Why tarry now? come, take my life, or I myself will take it, and so pass to those bright fields of light where dwells the soul of Blanchefleur amid the flowers!'

   After this lament Fleur arose, and drawing a golden stilus from its case, he said, 'This stilus, her parting gift, and all now

   left to me of Blanchefleur, shall be my comfort by taking me from a world in which without her I cannot bear to live.' So saying, Fleur would have stabbed himself to the heart with the golden stilus, but the Queen his mother tore it from his hand, crying: 'What madness were it to lose your life for love! Be well assured that never thus could you come to Blanchefleur in her flowery meads; rather would you be sent to dwell in eternal grief and pain with Pyramus and Thisbe, who for a like offence were condemned to seek forever the comfort that they shall never find in love: take heart, therefore, my child, for I have skill to call your Blanchefleur back to life.'

   After these words spoken to Fleur, the Queen, in sore trouble of spirit, sought her lord the King, and showing to him the golden stilus, said, 'Sir, take pity on your child, for with this golden

   stilus he had done himself to death but for my staying hand; and, sir, were he, our only child, to die, bethink you how grievous would be our loss! Say then, sir, what think you were best to do?' To the entreaties of his Queen, King Fenis thus made reply: 'Tell Fleur to be comforted, seeing that his Blanchefleur lives.'

   Glad at heart to be bearer of such a message, the Queen hasted to her son, and, taking him apart, she said to the sorrowing Fleur, 'Weep no more, but know the truth; your love lies not in the tomb.'

   Then, opening the coffin and showing to him its emptiness, the Queen told all to Fleur: how she and the King his father had sent him to Montorio, that there he might forget his Blanchefleur, a Christian and a slave, and choose in her stead a heathen bride of royal race, and how, finding him still faithful, King Fenis could have slain Blanchefleur, but, yielding to his 

 Prev. P 6/22 next