Quoted by Walter Pater, Studies in the History of the Rennaissance. 1873.
Description:

'Aucassin was put in prison, as you have heard, and Nicolette remained shut up in her chamber. It was summer-time, in the month of May, when the days are warm and long and clear, and the nights coy and serene.

One night Nicolette, lying on her bed, saw the moon shine clear through the little window, and heard the nightingale sing in the garden, and then came the memory of Aucassin, whom she so much loved. She thought of the Count Garins of Beaucaire, who so mortally hated her, and, to be rid of her, might at any moment cause her to be burned or drowned. She perceived that the old woman who kept her company was asleep; she rose and put on the fairest gown she had; she took the bed-clothes and the towels, and knotted them together like a cord, as far as they would go. Then she tied the end to a pillar of the window, and let herself slip down quite softly into the garden, and passed straight across it, to reach the town.

Her hair was yellow in small curls, her smiling eyes blue-green, her face clear and feat, the little lips very red, the teeth small and white; and the daisies which she crushed in passing, holding her skirt high behind and before, looked dark against her feet; the girl was so white!

She came to the garden-gate and opened it, and walked through the streets of Beaucaire, keeping on the dark side of the way to avoid the light of the moon, which shone quietly in the sky. She walked as fast as she could, until she came to the tower where Aucassin was. The tower was set about with pillars, here and there. She pressed herself against one of the pillars, wrapped herself closely in her mantle, and putting her face to a chink of the tower, which was old and ruined, she heard Aucassin crying bitterly within, and when she had listened awhile she began to speak.' (14-15)

 

'Aucassin, li biax, li blons,

Li gentix, li amorous;-' (15)

 

[quote of 'Fauriel's modernised version']: 'En paradis qu'ai-je à faire? rèpondit Aucassin, 'Je ne me soucie d'y aller, pourvu qui j'aie seulement Nicolette, ma douce mie, qui j'aime tant. Qui va en paradis, sinon telles gens, comme je vous dirai bien? Cen vieux prêtres y vont, ces vieux boiteux, ces vieux manchots, qi jour et nuit ae cramponment aux autels, et aux chapelles. Aussi y vont ces vieux moines en guenilles, qui marchent nu-pieds ou en sandales rapiécetées, qui meurent de faim, de soif et de mésaises. Voilà vieux-je bien aller. En enfer aussi cont les belles coutoises dames qui, avec leurs maris, ont deux amis ou trois. L'or et l'argent y vont, les belles fourrures, le vair et le gris. Les joueurs de harp y vont, les jongleurs et les rois du monde; et avec eux tous veux-je aller, pourvu suelement qu'avec moi j'aie Nicolette, ma très-douce mie.' (17)