<P> Later that night, Porphyro makes his way to the castle and braves entry, seeking out Angela, an elderly woman friendly to his family, and importuning her to lead him to Madeline's room at night where he may but gaze upon her sleeping form . Angela is persuaded only with difficulty, saying she fears damnation if Porphyro does not afterward marry the girl . </P> <P> Concealed in an ornate carven closet in Madeline's room, Porphyro watches as Madeline makes ready for bed, and then, beholding her full beauty in the moonlight, creeps forth as she sleeps to prepare a feast of rare delicacies . Madeline wakes and sees before her the same image she has seen in her dream and, thinking Porphyro part of it, receives him into her bed . Awakening in full and realizing her mistake, she tells Porphyro she cannot hate him for his deception since her heart is so much in his, but that if he goes now he leaves behind "A dove forlorn and lost / With sick unpruned wing". </P> <P> Porphyro declares his love for Madeline and promises her a home with him over the southern moors . They escape the castle past insensate revelers and flee into the night . The beadsman, "after thousand aves told, / For aye unsought for slept among his ashes cold". </P> <P> Angela's death, as well as the beadsman's, is revealed in the poem's final stanza . </P>

St agnes eve ah bitter chill it was