‘Tell her,’ he said, ‘that I commend me to her with my last breath. Thank her for all her kindness and the mercy she would have shown me even to-night, but say that I choose to die rather than be banished from her presence, and so Chastelâr bids her farewell,—the fairest, the proudest, and the best beloved princess under heaven!’
He seemed composed, even cheerful. To all appearance, the man was in possession of his faculties and in his right mind, yet these were the last words Chastelâr ever spoke on earth.
CHAPTER XXIV.
‘They led him forth to the silent square,
In the gray of the morning sky,
And they brought him a cup of red wine there,
To drink, and then to die.
‘Without the gate, Lady Margaret stood,