your own country. Permit us to throw your paramour into the sea,
and we shall speedily find our prayers effectual." The princess was then
lying, almost exhausted with fatigue, sickness, and fear, in the arms of
her lover; who, though bursting with rage, could only express it by
execrations, which he vented as loudly as he could in the hope of
drowning the hateful voice of the mariner, but the fatal assurance
"Eliduc was already married," had reached the ear, and sunk deeply into
the heart of Guilliadun. She fainted, and though he and his friends
employed all the means in their power for her recovery, they were unable
to produce any symptom of returning animation, a general exclamation of
grief pronounced her dead; when the knight, starting from the body,
seized an oar, felled at one blow the presumptuous seaman, threw him by
the foot into the sea, took possession of the helm, and directed it so
skilfully that the vessel reached the harbour in safety. They all
landed, and in a very few hours might reach the castle of Eliduc, which
was not far from the coast; but where could he deposit the body of his
mistress, how inter it with all the honours suitable to her rank and
merit? he at length recollected, that in the forest which surrounded his
mansion, dwelt an aged hermit, at whose cell the corpse might remain
till its interment: he could then enjoy the sad pleasure of visiting
daily the object of all his solicitude, and he determined to found on
the spot an abbey, in which a number of monks should pray for ever for
the soul of the lovely and injured Guilliadun. He then mounted his
palfrey, and, carrying the body in his arms, proceeded with his
attendants to the hermitage. The door was shut; and they discovered,
after having at length procured an entrance, the grave of the holy man,
who had expired a few days before. Eliduc caused a bed to be made within
the chapel; and placing on it his mistress, whose deadly paleness had
not yet injured her beauty, burst into a flood of tears, kissed her
lips and eyes, as if in the hopes of restoring their animation; and
solemnly pronounced a vow, that from the date of her interment he would
never more exercise the functions of a knight; but, after having erected
an abbey on the spot, sanctified by her remains, would assume himself
the monastic habit, and daily visit her tomb to express his love, his
grief, and his remorse. He then, with difficulty tore himself from the
body, and departed;