The Admiral now commanded the prisoners to be produced, who when they appeared were very sad, regarding each other with tender pity.

‘My Lord,’ said Fleur to the Admiral, ’being guilty I am prepared to die, but spare my Blanchefleur, for she is innocent, seeing that without her knowledge I came within your Tower.’

‘My Lord,’ cried Blanchefleur, ’the guilt is mine, for had I not been in your Tower never would Fleur have sought to enter it.  Moreover, it were shame that a king’s son should die for me, who am but the daughter of his handmaid.’

‘Not so, my Lord,’ cried Fleur again; ’let me die, that Blanchefleur may live.’

‘Be easy,’ said the Admiral, ’for with my own hand I will slay you both.’  So saying, he made for the prisoners with his drawn sword, whereupon Blanchefleur sprang forward and offered her neck for the blow, but was dragged back by Fleur, who with indignant tears exclaimed:  ’What!  Shall I, to my shame, suffer you, a woman, to die for me, who am a man, before the eyes of this great assembly?’ And so saying, Fleur extended his neck instead for the death-blow, but Blanchefleur in turn pulled him back by his clothes and ran in before him, holding out her neck.  Thus for some time these lovers strove, each seeking to die before the other, until for pity the lords began to weep, and even the Admiral, feeling his heart relent, let the sword drop from his hands.

Then stepped forward a certain Duke, and in the name of all present made earnest petitions for the prisoners’ lives.  ‘Methinks,’ said he, ’that for the safety and honour of our Lord the Admiral ’twere best to spare the prisoners, whose death would profit him not, whereas by freeing them on condition that Fleur revealed in what wise he stole into the Tower, His Highness may discover and punish his unfaithful servants.’

The Admiral, marking that all his lords were inclined to mercy, agreed to this Duke’s proposal and offered their lives to the captives if Fleur would but tell how he made his way into the Tower.’

’That, sire, replied Fleur, ’I may only do under promise of pardon to those who were my helpers.’

‘No! no!’ cried the Admiral, furious at the thought of further mercy.  ‘They shall all die, every man among them.’

Then came forward a Bishop, who, falling at the Admiral’s feet, entreated that the gracious mercy of His Highness might be extended to all concerned; ‘for,’ said the Lord Bishop, ’it would please the assembled company better to hear the prisoners’ story than to behold their death.’  These words of the Bishop were supported by all the lords, who with one acclaim called on their King and Admiral to pardon the prisoners at the prayer of his faithful subjects.  So the Admiral gave ear to the prayer of his lords and pardoned the lovers and all and sundry who were their helpers, and when this was done Fleur arose and told the whole sweet and touching story of Blanchefleur and himself from the time of their birth up to the moment when they were found together in the Tower, and when his tale was told Fleur knelt down before the Admiral and entreated His Highness with tears for the gift of Blanchefleur, for whose sake he had done and suffered so great things; seeing, moreover, that without her he could not live, nor indeed could she, if torn from him, find life endurable.