Lady Cui

Dies first, and on purpose. Liu Chan's consort, who stops him at the door to ask why his face bears 'this look of terrible anger', hears that he means to die rather than bow the knee, and answers 'How worthy; how worthy! And if my lord must die, I, thy handmaid, prays that she may die first. Then may my Prince depart.' Asked why she should die at all: 'The Prince dies for his father and the handmaid for her husband. One eternal principle guides us all.' 'Thereupon she dashed herself against a pillar, and so she died.' Her severed head goes with him to the ancestral temple.