{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart213.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart213.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart213.htm","text":"CHAPTER XX\nHow it was noised how Sir Tristram was dead, and how\nLa Beale Isoud would have slain herself.\nTHEN Sir Andred, that was cousin unto Sir Tristram, made a lady\nthat was his paramour to say and to noise it that she was with\nSir Tristram or ever he died. And this tale she brought unto\nKing Mark's court, that she buried him by a well, and that or he\ndied he besought King Mark to make his cousin, Sir Andred, king\nof the country of Liones, of the which Sir Tristram was lord of.\nAll this did Sir Andred because he would have had Sir Tristram's\nlands. And when King Mark heard tell that Sir Tristram was dead\nhe wept and made great dole. But when Queen Isoud heard of these\ntidings she made such sorrow that she was nigh out of her mind;\nand so upon <385>a day she thought to slay herself and never to\nlive after Sir Tristram's death. And so upon a day La Beale\nIsoud gat a sword privily and bare it to her garden, and there\nshe pight the sword through a plum tree up to the hilt, so that\nit stuck fast, and it stood breast high. And as she would have\nrun upon the sword and to have slain herself all this espied King\nMark, how she kneeled down and said: Sweet Lord Jesu, have mercy\nupon me, for I may not live after the death of Sir Tristram de\nLiones, for he was my first love and he shall be the last. And\nwith these words came King Mark and took her in his arms, and\nthen he took up the sword, and bare her away with him into a\ntower; and there he made her to be kept, and watched her surely,\nand after that she lay long sick, nigh at the point of death.\nThis meanwhile ran Sir Tristram naked in the forest with the\nsword in his hand, and so he came to an hermitage, and there he\nlaid him down and slept; and in the meanwhile the hermit stole\naway his sword, and laid meat down by him. Thus was he kept\nthere ten days; and at the last he departed and came to the\nherdmen again. And there was a giant in that country that hight\nTauleas, and for fear of Sir Tristram more than seven year he\ndurst never much go at large, but for the most part he kept him\nin a sure castle of his own; and so this Tauleas heard tell that\nSir Tristram was dead, by the noise of the court of King Mark.\nThen this Tauleas went daily at large. And so he happed upon a\nday he came to the herdmen wandering and langering, and there he\nset him down to rest among them. The meanwhile there came a\nknight of Cornwall that led a lady with him, and his name was Sir\nDinant; and when the giant saw him he went from the herdmen and\nhid him under a tree, and so the knight came to that well, and\nthere he alighted to repose him. And as soon as he was from his\nhorse this giant Tauleas came betwixt this knight and his horse,\nand took the horse and leapt upon him. So forthwith he rode unto\nSir Dinant and took him by the collar, and pulled him afore him\nupon his horse, and there would <386>have stricken off his head.\nThen the herdmen said unto Sir Tristram: Help yonder knight.\nHelp ye him, said Sir Tristram. We dare not, said the herdmen.\nThen Sir Tristram was ware of the sword of the knight thereas it\nlay; and so thither he ran and took up the sword and struck off\nSir Tauleas' head, and so he yede his way to the herdmen.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK IX CHAPTER XX","type":"page"}