The Death of King Arthur (17 page)

‘I wish to take the queen into my charge, and govern her as I choose.'

The king sat silent for a moment. ‘I grant your wish. Take her and care for her. I do not suppose that you will have her for long.' He was already thinking of Tristram.

‘As for that,' Palomides replied, ‘we must wait and see.' Then he took Isolde by the hand. ‘Madam, do not resent me. I require nothing but the performance of your promise.'

‘I do not resent you or fear you,' the queen replied. ‘I will keep my promise. But I fully expect that I will be rescued.' So she went into the courtyard of the castle, where she was given her favourite horse. Then they rode on their way.

King Mark at once sent for Sir Tristram, but he could not be found. He had gone hunting in the woods. ‘This is a grievous day,' the king said. ‘I have lost my wife by my own assent. I will be shamed for ever.'

Then a young knight, Lambegus, stepped forward. ‘My lord,' he said, ‘I am one of Sir Tristram's affinity. Let me ride out for his sake, and rescue the queen. I will deserve your trust.'

‘God speed to you,' the king replied. ‘When you come back with her, I will reward you.'

So Lambegus galloped after Palomides, and caught up with him close to a waterfall whose waters fell with the sound of bells ringing. ‘Who are you?' Palomides asked him. ‘Are you Tristram?'

‘I am one of his companions. My name is Lambegus.'

‘I would rather fight with Tristram.'

‘You would repent that, sir. When you meet that knight, you will surely have your hands full.'

So they dashed against each other with swords and spears until Palomides caught Lambegus with such a great blow that the young man fell to the ground. Palomides had no time to exult in his victory, however. When he looked around, he groaned aloud. Isolde had gone.

Isolde had run into a wood close by, where she came upon a well. She looked into its darkness, and meditated on her fate. Would it not be better to plunge down into the depths of the earth? Then she heard the sound of a horse coming into the clearing behind her. Sir Adtherpe was the lord of this region. He had been riding through the wood in search of game, but now he came to the aid of the lady in distress. He persuaded her to go with him and take refuge in his castle. There he learned that she was Isolde, Queen of Cornwall; she told him, with many tears, all the details of her capture. ‘I will ride after Palomides, madam,' he said, ‘and avenge you. This is insupportable. This is evil.' He rode out that same day and, following Isolde's description of the place where Lambegus had mounted his challenge, he soon found Sir Palomides. The two knights rode against each other at once, but Adtherpe was so badly wounded that he was forced to surrender. ‘Tell me now where the queen is,' Palomides demanded of him. ‘Otherwise you will die here.'

‘She lies in my castle.'

‘Where is it?'

‘I am too wounded to take you there. But if you ride down this path, you will find it.'

So Palomides followed the narrow road. When Isolde saw him riding towards the castle, she ordered that all the gates be barred and bolted. When he realized that he could not force his way to her, he leaped from his saddle and sat down on the ground beside the main gate. He seemed mad with anger and disappointment.

Let us turn back to Sir Tristram, who has just returned from hunting. When he learned that Palomides had taken Isolde, he burst out in his wrath. ‘This day I am shamed!' he shouted. Then he called for Gouvernail. ‘Come. Bring me my arms. Lambegus will not have been strong enough to withstand the assaults of Palomides. If only I had been there instead! I would have prevented all this grief.'

As soon as he was well armed, he rode into the forest. He found Sir Lambegus quickly enough, lying wounded on the forest floor. He took him up in his arms, and carried him to a forester's cottage. He rode on and found Sir Adtherpe by the side of the path, also suffering from his wounds. ‘What has happened here?' Tristram asked him.

‘I saved the queen from drowning herself. And for her sake I did battle against Sir Palomides. But I was not strong enough.'

He was about to say more, but Tristram held up his hand. ‘Where is she now?'

‘She is safe in my castle.'

‘God thank you for your goodness.' Then he galloped off with his squire in attendance.

He soon came up to the castle, where he saw Sir Palomides sitting by the gate like a man out of his wits. ‘Go up to him,' he told Gouvernail, ‘and tell him to prepare for combat. I am thirsty for him.'

Gouvernail rode over to him. ‘Arise, Sir Palomides,' he said. ‘Sir Tristram wishes to make a venture against you.' But Palomides did not reply; he appeared to be in a stupor. Gouvernail went back to Tristram. ‘He is asleep, sir, or he has lost his reason.'

‘Go to him again. Tell him that his mortal enemy is close by.'

Gouvernail rode over, and nudged Palomides with his spear. ‘Come on, sir, wake up. Get yourself ready. Tristram, your mortal enemy, waits for you.'

Without speaking, Palomides rose and went over to his horse. As soon as he was in the saddle he made a dash for Tristram with his spear in his hand. Tristram parried the blow and knocked his opponent from his horse. Then they both took out their swords and began a bloody combat. They fought for two hours, both of them fired by love of the same lady.

Isolde watched them from one of the tall windows of the castle. ‘I love Tristram more than life itself. But I cannot allow him to kill Palomides. That man is still a Saracen, and has never yet been baptized. If he dies, he will be damned for ever.' So she ran out from the castle on to the field of battle, and begged both men to desist. ‘For the love I bear you,' she said to Tristram, ‘put up your sword.'

‘What do you mean, madam?' Tristram asked her. ‘Do you wish to bring shame upon me? You know well enough that I will obey you in all things.'

‘Oh, my lord,' she replied, ‘you know that I do not mean to dishonour you. But for my sake spare this Saracen. Let him be baptized as a Christian before he dies.'

‘I will obey your command,' Tristram said. ‘For your sake I will save his soul.'

Then Isolde turned to Palomides. ‘This is my charge to you. You must leave this country, and never return while I remain here. You will go to the court of King Arthur, and there send my greetings to Lady Guinevere. Tell her from me that there are only four lovers in the world – Guinevere and Lancelot, Isolde and Tristram.'

So with heavy heart Palomides departed, and Tristram took Isolde back to the court of King Mark, where he was met with great rejoicing. He then returned to the house of the forester and took up Sir Lambegus to be treated by skilful surgeons.

All passed fairly and favourably at the court of King Mark but there was one who looked with hatred and suspicion on Sir Tristram. This man was his cousin, Sir Andred, who schemed against him secretly. One day he saw Tristram and Isolde talking together in the embrace of a bay window; they were standing close to one another, and their hands were clasped. He went at once to the king with his suspicions of treachery. The king hastily took up his sword, and ran to the chamber where Andred had seen them. ‘False traitor!' he called out to Tristram. He would have struck him with his sword, but Tristram rushed over and took the weapon from him. The king cried out, ‘Where are my knights and my men? I charge you all to kill this traitor!'

Not one of them obeyed him.

When Tristram saw that no one opposed him, he shook his sword at King Mark and snarled at him. Whereupon the king ran away in fear and trembling. Tristram followed him, and laid the flat of his sword on his neck so that with a groan the king fell to the floor.

Tristram, knowing his danger, then armed himself and rode into the forest with his men. The king's knights followed him, but Tristram easily defeated them all. He killed one brother and wounded another, charging the survivor to carry the head of his dead brother back to the king. ‘Tell him,' he said, ‘that I defy him.'

King Mark called his advisers together. ‘What shall we do with this foe?' he asked them.

‘I think, sire,' one of them replied, ‘that you must make your peace with him. He has many supporters in the land, and he is supposed to be the most valiant and pious knight in the world. Only Sir Lancelot can rival him in virtue. What if Sir Tristram were to travel to the court of King Arthur? You would then be at a disadvantage. The two best knights in the world would be in the retinue of your rival. So I counsel you, my lord, to seek a truce with him.'

‘Very well,' King Mark replied. ‘We will send for him, and secure his friendship once more.'

So this was done. Tristram returned to court, and was welcomed by the king. Their confrontation was forgiven, if not forgotten. All was, for a while, good cheer.

It so happened that King Mark and Queen Isolde went out on an expedition with Sir Tristram. They pitched their pavilions in a great meadow beside a river, where all the knights rode out in joust and tournament. Among them was Sir Lamorak de Galis, who boldly ventured against all the king's warriors, one by one, and defeated them all. ‘I marvel,' the king said, ‘at the strength of this man. What is his name?'

‘I know him well,' Sir Tristram told him. ‘He is Sir Lamorak. Few knights are his equal.'

‘It would be a shame and a disgrace for him to leave here without being beaten by one of my own knights.'

‘My lord,' Tristram replied, ‘this man has already done enough, and more than enough, to prove his valour. He has done as much as Lancelot ever dared. It would dishonour me to take the field against him now, when he is tired.'

‘As for that, I charge you – as you love me and my queen – to test him once more in combat.'

‘Sir, you order me to set a challenge against the laws of knighthood. If I give him a fall, there is no glory for me. Every good knight is disinclined to take advantage of another. But since you order me to do so, I can only obey.'

So, taking up his spear and his sword, he mounted his horse. He and Sir Lamorak met each other with great force of arms, and Tristram slew the horse of his opponent with his spear. Sir Lamorak leaped to his feet, and drew his sword. ‘Alight, sir knight,' he called out. ‘If you dare!'

‘No, sir, I will not. I have already done too much, to my dishonour.'

‘I cannot thank you for that. Since you have defeated me on horseback I ask you, Sir Tristram de Liones, to fight with me on foot.'

‘You know my name, and I know yours. I can fight you no more, Sir Lamorak de Galis. I took the field against my will, but I was ordered to do so by my lord. I will not bring more shame upon my head. I know that you have courage enough for a company of men, but I cannot raise my sword against a tired warrior.'

‘So be it,' Sir Lamorak replied. ‘There will come a day of reckoning.'

Sir Lamorak had ridden for many miles, and was about to rest for the night when he encountered a knight who was on his way to the court of King Arthur, sent by Morgan le Fay. This knight carried with him an enchanted goblet, ornamented with gold, which revealed the secrets of a woman's heart. If a lady loved her husband, she could drink from the goblet freely; but, if she was unfaithful to him, she would spill its contents on the ground. Morgan le Fay was sending it to King Arthur, to show him that Guinevere really loved Lancelot. The goblet was meant to sow discord at Arthur's court. The knight readily described the magical properties of the goblet; he was a gabbler, and loved marvels. When he had heard everything, Sir Lamorak went up close to him and whispered in his ear. ‘You have a choice,' he said. ‘You can die now. Or you can take this goblet to the court of the King of Cornwall. Tell him that I have sent it for Queen Isolde, in order to prove her true love for her husband.' He wanted to be revenged against Tristram.

The knight took the goblet to King Mark, and told him of its power. The king immediately called Isolde, and a hundred of her ladies, into his presence. He ordered them to drink. The queen, and most of her company, failed the test. Only four of them drank from the goblet without spilling the liquid. ‘Ah,' said the king, ‘this is a great shame and sorrow to me. The queen and the others must all be burned at the stake. They have all committed adultery in their hearts.' In those days the penalty for adultery was death by fire.

But his lords and barons remonstrated with him. ‘Why do you trust this piece of black magic,' one of them asked him, ‘come from the hands of the most evil witch in the world?'

‘If ever I see her,' another said, ‘Morgan le Fay will get short courtesy from me.'

Tristram himself was angry, because he knew that Sir Lamorak had sent the goblet to test him. He knew, too, that Morgan le Fay was ever an enemy against true love.

Tristram continued to see Isolde whenever he could, day and night, and all the time his cousin Andred watched him. His waiting was over when, one night, he took twelve knights and surprised Tristram naked in bed with the queen. Tristram was bound, hand and foot, and imprisoned in the bedchamber until day. Then, at the command of the king and some of the barons, he was taken to a chapel of black stone that stood upon a rocky shore. It was a seat of judgement by the swirling water. It was an ancient place of doom. When he saw the soldiers of the king gathered there, he knew that they had come to witness his death.

‘Fair lords,' he said to the assembled crowd. ‘Remember everything I have done for Cornwall, at the risk of my own life. All of you refused to do battle against Marhalt. Only I took up the challenge. Is this my reward? You bring shame upon knighthood itself to treat me in this way.'