But the couch upon
which he lay was spared and missed the blows, so that he was not
struck or touched. But all about they thrashed enough, and
raised an uproar in the room with their clubs, like a blind man
who pounds as he goes about his search. While they were poking
about under the beds and the stools, there entered one of the
most beautiful ladies that any earthly creature ever saw. Word
or mention was never made of such a fair Christian dame, and yet
she was so crazed with grief that she was on the point of taking
her life. All at once she cried out at the top of her voice, and
then fell prostrate in a swoon. And when she had been picked up
she began to claw herself and tear her hair, like a woman who had
lost her mind. She tears her hair and rips her dress, and faints
at every step she takes; nor can anything comfort her when she
sees her husband borne along lifeless in the bier; for her
happiness is at an end, and so she made her loud lament. The
holy water and the cross and the tapers were borne in advance by
the nuns from a convent; then came missals and censers and the
priests, who pronounce the final absolution required for the
wretched soul.
(Vv. 1173-1242.) My lord Yvain heard the cries and the grief
that can never be described, for no one could describe it, nor
was such ever set down in a book.
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