“I pray you of your compassion, and of your fealty,
Vouchsafe unto me in my sorrow this one little grace
That once more and for the last time I may look on his lovely face!”
So long in her anguish she pleaded, so earnestly she besought,
That they needs must at last wrench open the coffin richly wrought.
The Queen then thitherward led they, and she bowed her over her dead.
In her white hands she enfolded and lifted his comely head;
And she kissed that faded glory, that noble knight and good.
Her starry eyes for sorrow wept very tears of blood.
An exceeding pitiful parting saw all men in that hour.