{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart185.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart185.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart185.htm","text":"CHAPTER XXXII\nHow Sir Tristram brought Queen Isoud home, and of the\ndebate of King Mark and Sir Tristram.\nAND so Sir Palamides departed with great heaviness. And Sir\nTristram took the queen and brought her again to King Mark, and\nthen was there made great joy of her home-coming. Who was\ncherished but Sir Tristram! Then Sir Tristram let fetch Sir\nLambegus, his knight, <332>from the forester's house, and it was\nlong or he was whole, but at the last he was well recovered.\nThus they lived with joy and play a long while. But ever Sir\nAndred, that was nigh cousin to Sir Tristram, lay in a watch to\nwait betwixt Sir Tristram and La Beale Isoud, for to take them\nand slander them. So upon a day Sir Tristram talked with La\nBeale Isoud in a window, and that espied Sir Andred, and told it\nto the King. Then King Mark took a sword in his hand and came to\nSir Tristram, and called him false traitor, and would have\nstricken him. But Sir Tristram was nigh him, and ran under his\nsword, and took it out of his hand. And then the King cried:\nWhere are my knights and my men? I charge you slay this traitor.\nBut at that time there was not one would move for his words.\nWhen Sir Tristram saw that there was not one would be against\nhim, he shook the sword to the king, and made countenance as\nthough he would have stricken him. And then King Mark fled, and\nSir Tristram followed him, and smote upon him five or six strokes\nflatling on the neck, that he made him to fall upon the nose.\nAnd then Sir Tristram yede his way and armed him, and took his\nhorse and his man, and so he rode into that forest.\nAnd there upon a day Sir Tristram met with two brethren that were\nknights with King Mark, and there he struck off the head of the\none, and wounded the other to the death; and he made him to bear\nhis brother's head in his helm unto the king, and thirty more\nthere he wounded. And when that knight came before the king to\nsay his message, he there died afore the king and the queen.\nThen King Mark called his council unto him, and asked advice of\nhis barons what was best to do with Sir Tristram. Sir, said the\nbarons, in especial Sir Dinas, the Seneschal, Sir, we will give\nyou counsel for to send for Sir Tristram, for we will that ye wit\nmany men will hold with Sir Tristram an he were hard bestead.\nAnd sir, said Sir Dinas, ye shall understand that Sir Tristram is\ncalled peerless and makeless of any Christian knight, and of his\nmight and hardiness we knew none so good a knight, but if it be\n<333>Sir Launcelot du Lake. And if he depart from your court and\ngo to King Arthur's court, wit ye well he will get him such\nfriends there that he will not set by your malice. And\ntherefore, sir, I counsel you to take him to your grace. I will\nwell, said the king, that he be sent for, that we may be friends.\nThen the barons sent for Sir Tristram under a safe conduct. And\nso when Sir Tristram came to the king he was welcome, and no\nrehearsal was made, and there was game and play. And then the\nking and the queen went a-hunting, and Sir Tristram.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK VIII CHAPTER XXXII","type":"page"}