When he was come back to Brittany, to Carhaix, it happened that
Tristan, riding to the aid of Kaherdin his brother in arms, fell into
ambush and was wounded by a poisoned spear; and many doctors came, but
none could cure him of the ill. And Tristan weakened and paled, and
his bones showed.
Then he knew that his life was going, and that he must die, and he had
a desire to see once more Iseult the Fair, but he could not seek her,
for the sea would have killed him in his weakness, and how could
Iseult come to him? And sad, and suffering the poison, he awaited
death.
He called Kaherdin secretly to tell him his pain, for they loved each
other with a loyal love; and as he would have no one in the room save
Kaherdin, nor even in the neighbouring rooms, Iseult of the White
Hands began to wonder. She was afraid and wished to hear, and she came
back and listened at the wall by Tristan’s bed; and as she listened
one of her maids kept watch for her.
Now, within, Tristan had gathered up his strength, and had half risen,
leaning against the wall, and Kaherdin wept beside him. They wept
their good comradeship, broken so soon, and their friendship: then
Tristan told Kaherdin of his love for that other Iseult, and of the
sorrow of his life.
“Fair friend and gentle,” said Tristan, “I am in a foreign land where
I have neither friend nor cousin, save you; and you alone in this
place have given me comfort. My life is going, and I wish to see once
more Iseult the Fair. Ah, did I but know of a messenger who would go
to her! For now I know that she will come to me. Kaherdin, my brother
in arms, I beg it of your friendship; try this thing for me, and if
you carry my word, I will become your liege, and I will cherish you
beyond all other men.”
And as Kaherdin saw Tristan broken down, his heart reproached him and
he said:
“Fair comrade, do not weep; I will do what you desire, even if it were
risk of death I would do it for you. Nor no distress nor anguish will
let me from doing it according to my power. Give me the word you send,
and I will make ready.”
And Tristan answered:
“Thank you, friend; this is my prayer: take this ring, it is a sign
between her and me; and when you come to her land pass yourself at
court for a merchant, and show her silk and stuffs, but make so that
she sees the ring, for then she will find some ruse by which to speak
to you in secret. Then tell her that my heart salutes her; tell her
that she alone can bring me comfort; tell her that if she does not
come I shall die. Tell her to remember our past time, and our great
sorrows, and all the joy there was in our loyal and tender love. And
tell her to remember that draught we drank together on the high seas.
For we drank our death together. Tell her to remember the oath I swore
to serve a single love, for I have kept that oath.”
But behind the wall, Iseult of the White Hands heard all these things;
and Tristan continued:
“Hasten, my friend, and come back quickly, or you will not see me
again. Take forty days for your term, but come back with Iseult the
Fair. And tell your sister nothing, or tell her that you seek some
doctor. Take my fine ship, and two sails with you, one white, one
black. And as you return, if you bring Iseult, hoist the white sail;
but if you bring her not, the black. Now I have nothing more to say,
but God guide you and bring you back safe.”
With the first fair wind Kaherdin took the open, weighed anchor and
hoisted sail, and ran with a light air and broke the seas. They bore
rich merchandise with them, dyed silks of rare colours, enamel of
Touraine and wines of Poitou, for by this ruse Kaherdin thought to
reach Iseult. Eight days and nights they ran full sail to Cornwall.
Now a woman’s wrath is a fearful thing, and all men fear it, for
according to her love, so will her vengeance be; and their love and
their hate come quickly, but their hate lives longer than their love;
and they will make play with love, but not with hate. So Iseult of the
White Hands, who had heard every word, and who had so loved Tristan,
waited her vengeance upon what she loved most in the world. But she
hid it all; and when the doors were open again she came to Tristan’s
bed and served him with food as a lover should, and spoke him gently
and kissed him on the lips, and asked him if Kaherdin would soon
return with one to cure him … but all day long she thought upon her
vengeance.
And Kaherdin sailed and sailed till he dropped anchor in the haven of
Tintagel. He landed and took with him a cloth of rare dye and a cup
well chiselled and worked, and made a present of them to King Mark,
and courteously begged of him his peace and safeguard that he might
traffick in his land; and the King gave him his peace before all the
men of his palace.
Then Kaherdin offered the Queen a buckle of fine gold; and “Queen,”
said he, “the gold is good.”
Then taking from his finger Tristan’s ring, he put it side by side
with the jewel and said:
“See, O Queen, the gold of the buckle is the finer gold; yet that ring
also has its worth.”
When Iseult saw what ring that was, her heart trembled and her colour
changed, and fearing what might next be said she drew Kaherdin apart
near a window, as if to see and bargain the better; and Kaherdin said
to her, low down:
“Lady, Tristan is wounded of a poisoned spear and is about to die. He
sends you word that you alone can bring him comfort, and recalls to
you the great sorrows that you bore together. Keep you the ring—it is
yours.”
But Iseult answered, weakening:
“Friend, I will follow you; get ready your ship to-morrow at dawn.”
And on the morrow at dawn they raised anchor, stepped mast, and
hoisted sail, and happily the barque left land.
But at Carhaix Tristan lay and longed for Iseult’s coming. Nothing now
filled him any more, and if he lived it was only as awaiting her; and
day by day he sent watchers to the shore to see if some ship came, and
to learn the colour of her sail. There was no other thing left in his
heart.
He had himself carried to the cliff of the Penmarks, where it
overlooks the sea, and all the daylight long he gazed far off over the
water.
Hear now a tale most sad and pitiful to all who love. Already was
Iseult near; already the cliff of the Penmarks showed far away, and
the ship ran heartily, when a storm wind rose on a sudden and grew,
and struck the sail, and turned the ship all round about, and the
sailors bore away and sore against their will they ran before the
wind. The wind raged and big seas ran, and the air grew thick with
darkness, and the ocean itself turned dark, and the rain drove in
gusts. The yard snapped, and the sheet; they struck their sail, and
ran with wind and water. In an evil hour they had forgotten to haul
their pinnace aboard; it leapt in their wake, and a great sea broke it
away.
Then Iseult cried out: “God does not will that I should live to see
him, my love, once—even one time more. God wills my drowning in this
sea. O, Tristan, had I spoken to you but once again, it is little I
should have cared for a death come afterwards. But now, my love, I
cannot come to you; for God so wills it, and that is the core of my
grief.”
And thus the Queen complained so long as the storm endured; but after
five days it died down. Kaherdin hoisted the sail, the white sail,
right up to the very masthead with great joy; the white sail, that
Tristan might know its colour from afar: and already Kaherdin saw
Britanny far off like a cloud. Hardly were these things seen and done
when a calm came, and the sea lay even and untroubled. The sail
bellied no longer, and the sailors held the ship now up, now down, the
tide, beating backwards and forwards in vain. They saw the shore afar
off, but the storm had carried their boat away and they could not
land. On the third night Iseult dreamt this dream: that she held in
her lap a boar’s head which befouled her skirts with blood; then she
knew that she would never see her lover again alive.
Tristan was now too weak to keep his watch from the cliff of the
Penmarks, and for many long days, within walls, far from the shore, he
had mourned for Iseult because she did not come. Dolorous and alone,
he mourned and sighed in restlessness: he was near death from desire.
At last the wind freshened and the white sail showed. Then it was that
Iseult of the White Hands took her vengeance.
She came to where Tristan lay, and she said:
“Friend, Kaherdin is here. I have seen his ship upon the sea. She
comes up hardly—yet I know her; may he bring that which shall heal
thee, friend.”
And Tristan trembled and said:
“Beautiful friend, you are sure that the ship is his indeed? Then tell
me what is the manner of the sail?”
“I saw it plain and well. They have shaken it out and hoisted it very
high, for they have little wind. For its colour, why, it is black.”
And Tristan turned him to the wall, and said:
“I cannot keep this life of mine any longer.” He said three times:
“Iseult, my friend.” And in saying it the fourth time, he died.
Then throughout the house, the knights and the comrades of Tristan
wept out loud, and they took him from his bed and laid him on a rich
cloth, and they covered his body with a shroud. But at sea the wind
had risen; it struck the sail fair and full and drove the ship to
shore, and Iseult the Fair set foot upon the land. She heard loud
mourning in the streets, and the tolling of bells in the minsters and
the chapel towers; she asked the people the meaning of the knell and
of their tears. An old man said to her:
“Lady, we suffer a great grief. Tristan, that was so loyal and so
right, is dead. He was open to the poor; he ministered to the
suffering. It is the chief evil that has ever fallen on this land.”
But Iseult, hearing them, could not answer them a word. She went up to
the palace, following the way, and her cloak was random and wild. The
Bretons marvelled as she went; nor had they ever seen woman of such a
beauty, and they said:
“Who is she, or whence does she come?”
Near Tristan, Iseult of the White Hands crouched, maddened at the evil
she had done, and calling and lamenting over the dead man. The other
Iseult came in and said to her:
“Lady, rise and let me come by him; I have more right to mourn him
than have you—believe me. I loved him more.”
And when she had turned to the east and prayed God, she moved the body
a little and lay down by the dead man, beside her friend. She kissed
his mouth and his face, and clasped him closely; and so gave up her
soul, and died beside him of grief for her lover.
When King Mark heard of the death of these lovers, he crossed the sea
and came into Brittany; and he had two coffins hewn, for Tristan and
Iseult, one of chalcedony for Iseult, and one of beryl for Tristan.
And he took their beloved bodies away with him upon his ship to
Tintagel, and by a chantry to the left and right of the apse he had
their tombs built round. But in one night there sprang from the tomb
of Tristan a green and leafy briar, strong in its branches and in the
scent of its flowers. It climbed the chantry and fell to root again by
Iseult’s tomb. Thrice did the peasants cut it down, but thrice it grew
again as flowered and as strong. They told the marvel to King Mark,
and he forbade them to cut the briar any more.
The good singers of old time, Beroul and Thomas of Built, Gilbert and
Gottfried told this tale for lovers and none other, and, by my pen,
they beg you for your prayers. They greet those who are cast down, and
those in heart, those troubled and those filled with desire. May all
herein find strength against inconstancy and despite and loss and pain
and all the bitterness of loving.