[055]
Having thus spoken, she bowed herself low over the cup; and,
while no womanish cry escaped her, 'twas as if a fountain of water
were unloosed within her head, so wondrous a flood of tears gushed
from her eyes, while times without number she kissed the dead
heart.
[056]
Her damsels that stood around her knew not whose the
heart might be or what her words might mean, but melting in sympathy,
they all wept, and compassionately, as vainly, enquired the
cause of her lamentation, and in many other ways sought to comfort
her to the best of their understanding and power.
[057]
When she had
wept her fill, she raised her head, and dried her eyes. Then: "O
heart," said she, "much cherished heart, discharged is my every duty
towards thee; nought now remains for me to do but to come and
unite my soul with thine."
[058]
So saying, she sent for the vase that
held the water which the day before she had distilled, and emptied
it into the cup where lay the heart bathed in her tears; then, nowise
afraid, she set her mouth to the cup, and drained it dry, and so with
the cup in her hand she got her upon her bed, and having there disposed
her person in guise as seemly as she might, laid her dead lover's heart
upon her own, and silently awaited death.
[059]
Meanwhile the damsels,
seeing and hearing what passed, but knowing not what the water
was that she had drunk, had sent word of each particular to Tancred;
who, apprehensive of that which came to pass, came down with all
haste to his daughter's room, where he arrived just as she got her
upon her bed, and, now too late, addressed himself to comfort her
with soft words, and seeing in what plight she was, burst into a flood
of bitter tears. [060]To whom the lady: "Reserve thy tears, Tancred,
till Fortune send thee hap less longed for than this: waste them not
on me who care not for them. Whoever yet saw any but thee
bewail the consummation of his desire? But, if of the love thou
once didst bear me any spark still lives in thee, be it thy parting
grace to me, that, as thou brookedst not that I should live with
Guiscardo in privity and seclusion, so wherever thou mayst have
caused Guiscardo's body to be cast, mine may be united with it in the
common view of all."
[061]
The Prince replied not for excess of grief;
and the lady, feeling that her end was come, strained the dead heart
to her bosom, saying: "Fare ye well; I take my leave of you;"
and with eyelids drooped and every sense evanished departed this
life of woe.
[062]
Such was the lamentable end of the loves of Guiscardo
and Ghismonda; whom Tancred, tardily repentant of his harshness,
mourned not a little, as did also all the folk of Salerno, and had
honourably interred side by side in the same tomb.
