HOW SIR TRISTRAM DEPARTED FROM TINTAGIL,
AND WAS LONG IN THE FOREST
There were great jousts and tourneying at that time in Cornwall, and
Sir Tristram was most praised of all the knights. But some were
jealous because of his prowess, and especially Sir Andred, that was
cousin unto Sir Tristram, ever lay in a watch to wait betwixt him and
the Fair Isoud, for to take them and slander them. So upon a day Sir
Tristram talked with Isoud in a window, and that espied Sir Andred, and
told it to the king.
Then King Mark took a sword in his hand and came to Sir Tristram, and
called him false traitor, and would have stricken him. But Sir
Tristram ran under his sword, and took it out of his hand. And then
the king cried, "Where are my knights and my men? I charge you slay
this traitor."
But there was not one would move for his words. When Sir Tristram saw
there was not one would be against him, he shook the sword to the king,
and made as though he would strike him. And then King Mark fled, for
he was a coward, and Sir Tristram followed him, and smote upon him five
or six strokes with the flat of his sword on the neck so that he made
him fall upon the nose. Sir Tristram then went his way and armed
himself, and took his horse and his man, and so he rode into the forest.
King Mark called his council unto him and asked advice of his barons
what was best to do with Sir Tristram. Their counsel was to send for
him, that they might be friends, for in a quarrel, if Sir Tristram were
hard bestead, many men would hold with him against the king; and if so
peerless a knight should depart from King Mark's court and go to King
Arthur's he would get himself such friends there that Cornwall would be
in ill repute.
So the barons sent for Sir Tristram under a safe conduct, and he was
welcomed back by King Mark. But his enemies ever plotted against him,
and on a day Sir Andred and some of the barons set upon him secretly,
seized him, and took him, bound hand and foot, unto a chapel which
stood upon the sea rocks. When Sir Tristram saw that Andred meant to
kill him there, he said: "Fair Lords, remember what I have done for the
country Cornwall, and in what jeopardy I have been for the weal of you
all, and see not me die thus to the shame of all knighthood."
But Andred held to his purpose, and when Sir Tristram saw him draw his
sword to kill him, he looked upon both his hands that were fast bound
unto two knights, and suddenly he pulled them both to him and so freed
his hands. Then he leaped unto his cousin Andred and wrested his sword
out of his hands. Then he smote Sir Andred to the earth, and fought
with the others till he had killed ten knights. So Sir Tristram gat
the chapel and kept it by force.
Then the uproar became great, and the people gathered unto Sir Andred,
more than a hundred, whereupon Sir Tristram shut fast the chapel door,
and brake the bars of a window, and so he leaped out and fell upon the
crags by the sea. Here Sir Andred and his fellows might not get to him
at that time, and so they departed.
When Sir Tristram's men heard that he was escaped they were passing
glad, and on the rocks they found him, and with towels they pulled him
up. Then Sir Tristram dreaded sore lest he were discovered unto the
king, wherefore he sent Gouvernail for his horse and his spear, and so
he rode his way into the forest. As he rode he was in great sorrow at
departing in this wise; and there, as he made great dole, by fortune a
damsel met him, and she and her lady brought him meat and drink. Also
they brought him a harp, for they knew him, and wist that for goodly
harping he bore the prize in the world.
So they tried to give him comfort, but he ate little of the food, and
at the last, came wholly out his mind for sorrow. He would go about in
the wilderness breaking down the trees and boughs; and otherwhile, when
he found the harp that the lady sent him, then would he harp and play
thereupon and weep together. Sometimes when Sir Tristram was in the
wood, then would the lady sit down and play upon the harp; then would
he come to that harp and hearken thereto, and sometimes he would harp
himself.
Thus it went on a quarter of a year, when at the last Sir Tristram ran
his way, and the lady wist not what had become of him. He waxed lean
and poor of flesh, and fell into the fellowship of herdmen and
shepherds, and daily they would give him of their meat and drink. And
when he did any evil deed they would beat him with rods, and so they
clipped him with shears and made him like a fool.
And upon a day Sir Dagonet, King Arthur's fool, came into Cornwall,
with two squires with him, and as they rode through the forest they
came by a fair well where Sir Tristram was wont to be. The weather was
hot, and they alighted to drink of that well, and in the meanwhile
their horses brake loose. Just then Sir Tristram came unto them, and
first he soused Sir Dagonet in that well, and then his squires, and
thereat laughed the shepherds. Forthwithal he ran after their horses,
and brought them again one by one, and right so, wet as they were, he
made Sir Dagonet and his squires mount and ride their ways.
Thus Sir Tristram endured there a half-year, and would never come in
town or village. Then Sir Andred, that was cousin unto Sir Tristram,
let a tale be brought unto King Mark's court that Sir Tristram was
dead, and that ere he died he besought King Mark to make Sir Andred
king of the country of Lyonesse, of the which Sir Tristram was lord.
When Queen Isoud heard of these tidings she made such sorrow that she
was nigh out of her mind, and she lay long sick, at the point of death.
Meanwhile a knight came unto King Mark and told him of a mad man in the
forest at the fair fountain. So he commanded his knights to take Sir
Tristram with fairness, and bring him to his castle, yet he knew not
that the mad man was Sir Tristram. They did softly and fair, and cast
mantles upon Sir Tristram, and so led him unto Tintagil. There they
bathed him, and gave him hot suppings, till they had brought him well
to his remembrance. But all this while there was no creature that knew
Sir Tristram, nor what man he was.
Now it fell upon a day that the queen, the Fair Isoud, heard of this
man that ran wild in the forest and how the king had brought him home
to the court, and with Dame Bragwaine she went to see him in the
garden, where he was reposing in the sun. When she looked upon Sir
Tristram she knew not that it was he, yet it seemed to her she had seen
him before. But as soon as Sir Tristram saw her he knew her well
enough, and he turned away his visage and wept. The queen had always
with her a little dog that Sir Tristram gave her the first time that
ever she came into Cornwall, and never would that dog depart from her
unless Sir Tristram was nigh there with Isoud. Anon as this little dog
caught a scent of Sir Tristram, she leaped upon him, licked his cheeks,
whined and smelled at his feet and over his whole body. Then the Fair
Isoud saw that it was her lord, Sir Tristram, and thereupon she fell
down in a swoon, and so lay a great while.
When she might speak, she blessed God that Sir Tristram was still
alive, yet she knew that her lord King Mark would discover him by the
little dog that would never leave him.