And from the dais at the other end of the chamber Jehanne Plantagenet looked at him and said a-high–
“Sir, in God’s name, tell me if you have a great love for me?”
And he a little changed countenance and bent his head very slowly.
“God hath holpen me to this moment,” he said, “but He cannot put it into my mouth to say how much I love you.”
“Sir,” she answered him, “ye may always have me for your lady, and though ye are not rich in goods or heritage ye shall be rich in this that she, who was a King’s daughter, loved you exceedingly, and I think you will be a worthy Knight and one full of honours, and when you have a wife I pray you tell her of me and let her be a fair woman, but as for me I am contracted to a villain knight in the name of love and lineage, and yet will not marry him and yet will do my devoir.”
Then Sir Paon shook in his harness, and I had great pity of his dolours.
“Fair sir, recomfort yourself,” said Jehanne, “I have lived gaily and shall die loyal. See you these candles, ten for the ten commandments whole and unbroken, seven for the seven works of charity and the seven deadly sins, five for the Five Wounds and the five senses, three for the Trinity. Now when I am dead and ye see these burning about my tomb and the poor people saying prayers for my soul, I beseech that you shall add a taper to my memory.”
And the water washed his eyen and he could not speak.
“As I so greatly loved this goodly town of London,” said Jehanne, “ye, living here, shall think of me, even at the time of the jousts and the great feasts, Easter, Christmas and the Holy Trinity, and remember I ever loved you the alder-beste of all in the world.”
And Sir Paon was sore discomfited that she should talk of death, and she came down from the dais.