excepting in marriage, I have never desired of you any other favour
than the one you are granting me now, for lack of which and with which
I shall cheerfully yield up my spirit to God. He is perfect love and
charity. He knows the greatness of my love and the purity of my desire,
and I beseech Him, while I hold my desire within my arms, to receive my
spirit into His own."

With these words he again took her in his arms, and with such exceeding
ardour that his enfeebled heart, unable to endure the effort, was
deprived of all its faculties and life; for joy caused it so to swell
that the soul was severed from its abode and took flight to its Creator.

And even when the poor body had lain a long time without life, and was
thus unable to retain its hold, the love which the damsel had always
concealed was made manifest in such a fashion that her mother and
the dead man's servants had much ado to separate her from her lover.
However, the girl, who, though living, was in a worse condition than if
she had been dead, was by force removed at last out of the gentleman's
arms. To him they gave honourable burial; and the crowning point of
the ceremony was the weeping and lamentation of the unhappy damsel,
who having concealed her love during his lifetime, made it all the more
manifest after his death, as though she wished to atone for the wrong
that she had done him. And I have heard that although she was given a
husband to comfort her, she has never since had joy in her heart. (1)

1 By an expression made use of by Dagoucin (see _ante_),
Queen Margaret gives us to understand that the incidents
here related occurred three years prior to the writing of
the story. It may be pointed out, however, that there is
considerable analogy between the conclusion of this tale and