Fleur and Blanchefleur | Page 3

judging from her great beauty and rich attire that his new purchase must come of noble race, resolved to break his rule of oft-repeated marriage by plighting his troth once and for all to her and her alone. With this intent accordingly he sent Blanchefleur to the women's tower, appointing twenty-five maidens for her service and solace, seeing that she was ere long to be crowned Queen of Babylon.
No sooner, however, did Blanchefleur, a helpless stranger in a distant land, find herself in a chamber alone and undisturbed, than, giving way to tears and lamentations, she cried, 'Alas, Fleur! who has torn us asunder? Never shall I cease to love and mourn you, for well know I that your heart is rent with the same pangs of love and grief, and that we both must surely die, for without love who would consent to live?'

Chapter III
Now, leaving Blanchefleur thus bewailing herself at Babylon, let us return to King Fenis and his Queen. On receiving at the hands of the two merchants the goodly treasure paid as Blanchefleur's price, King Fenis was well pleased, but not so the Queen, who in trouble of spirit cried, 'Now must we take good heed what we do, lest Fleur our son die of grief.' King Fenis accordingly, after taking thought upon the matter, caused a tomb of exceeding beauty to be made, of ivory, of marble, and of crystals, and in the tomb was set a coffin, and on the coffin were figured in gold the images of two children in the likeness of Fleur and Blanchefleur; on the head of each child was a crown of gold, and in that of Fleur was set a carbuncle that sparkled bright by night as in the day. Moreover, long pipes were laid down, which, catching the wind as it blew, caused the children to fondle and embrace each other as though in sport and play, and when the wind ceased they stood still, each one proffering to the other the flowers it held, and all seemed natural as life itself.
Never had maiden a costlier tomb, for it was encrusted with precious gems, such as sapphires, chalcedonies, amethyst, topaz, turquoise, jasper, chrysolite, diamond, and jacinth; also in letters of gold it bore this inscription:
'Here lies Blanchefleur, who loved young Fleur with tender love and true.'
[Illustration: Who loved young Fleur with tender love and true]
When all things were now ready, King Fenis, bidding his people beware for their lives of breathing a word to the effect that Blanchefleur, being yet alive, was not buried in this tomb, sent to Montorio, bidding his son return home. Joyfully did Fleur, all unknowing what had passed, obey the summons, and when, after greeting and salutation offered to his parents, he asked for Blanchefleur, and no man dared to answer him, he ran to her mother's chamber and asked where was Blanchefleur, whom he had left there.
'Fleur,' said the mother, 'I know not where she is.'
'Mock me not,' cried he, 'but say where is she whom for these three long weeks I have not seen?'
Then said the lady, 'Blanchefleur is dead and buried.'
At these words spoken Fleur fell stunned and senseless as though from a heavy blow, and the mother in her terror gave a cry, which, being heard throughout the court, brought the King and Queen running in, to behold with horror and dismay their child stretched lifeless on the ground.
When at length Fleur came to himself, neither prayers nor threats availed to calm the violence of his grief, but when he begged to see his beloved's tomb, the Queen his mother led 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