King Fenis, though by no means best pleased with his son’s deportment, yet sent him nobly equipped and provided to Montorio, where, on arrival, Fleur was warmly welcomed by Duke Toras, the Duchess, and their daughter Sibylla, and, when recovered from the fatigue of travel, was by Sibylla conducted to school, where many a fair and noble damsel was to be seen.  All was in vain:  no matter what of beauty or of loveliness might meet his eye or strike his ear, the thoughts of Fleur were ever and only with his Blanchefleur, for whose sake he heaved many a sigh and dropped many a tear against the day appointed for her coming; and when it came and brought her not, because his parents trusted that she was now forgotten, Fleur drooped and pined; unable, from heaviness of heart, to eat, drink, or sleep; and when his chamberlain saw that Fleur was sick he hasted back to tell King Fenis, who, calling for his Queen, took counsel with her on the matter.  ’What remedy there be for Fleur I know not,’ said the King, ’but this thing I know full well, that Blanchefleur has cast a spell upon him, and by enchantment has bound him so fast in love to her that he can look on none other than herself; so go, fetch me Blanchefleur, that she may die and be forgotten.’

Once more did the Queen plead for Blanchefleur’s life.

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‘Sir,’ said she, ’it is ill said that Blanchefleur has bewitched our child, for she loves him with a love that passes words, and has known no joy since he departed, but sits alone in tears and sorrow, refusing to eat.’

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Thus did the Queen save Blanchefleur from a cruel death, and thus did she further counsel her lord:  ‘Ah, sir!’ said she, ’’twere sin and shame to slay the child thus untried and unheard; better far, let her be taken to the harbour, and there sold away into distant lands and never be heard of more.’

Approving the counsel of his Queen, King Fenis sent for two rich merchants, and bade them take Blanchefleur and sell her to foreign traders at the harbour of Nicaea, which they promised faithfully to do.

When dismissed from the presence of the King and Queen, these two merchants hastened to the port of Nicaea, and, out of the many foreign traders who there bought and sold, chose two rich dealers from a distant land, who purchased Blanchefleur at a price that caused the vendors to rejoice, for these men gave 100 pounds of gold, 100 of silver, 100 webs of Indian silk, 100 scarlet mantles, 100 good horses, and 300 birds, such as falcons, hawks, and sparrow-hawks:  last and greatest of all, they gave a cup matchless in beauty and beyond all price.  Vulcan had made this cup, and on it he had pictured how Paris, son of Priam, king in Troy, had carried off Helena, and was pursued in wrath by Menelaus, Helena’s lord, together with his brother Agamemnon, at the head of a mighty host; and how the Greeks besieged and stormed Troy town, which the Trojans for their part defended, and when the city was taken, AEneas brought away the cup and gave it to a brother of his love Lavinia.