At this Sir Tristram cried out in a very loud voice:  “Lady, did you put your hand into my bosom and tear my naked heart, you could not cause me so much pain as that which I this moment endure.  It cannot be as you would have it, for it is thus with me:  were it but myself whom I might consider, I would freely sacrifice both my life and my honor for your sake.  But it may not be so, lady; for I am held to be one of the chiefest of that order of knighthood to which I belong, wherefore I may not consider myself, but must ever consider that order.  For if I should violate a pledge given upon my knighthood, then would I dishonor not myself, but that entire order to which I belong.  For, did I so, all the world would say, what virtue is there in the order of knighthood when one of the chiefest of that order may violate his pledge when it pleases him to do so?  So, lady, having assumed that great honor of knighthood I must perform its obligations even to the uttermost; yea, though in fulfilling my pledge I sacrifice both Thee and myself.”

Then Belle Isoult looked upon Sir Tristram for some little while, and by and by she smiled very pitifully and said:  “Ah, Tristram, I believe I am more sorry for thee than I am for myself.”

“Lady,” said Tristram, “I would God that I lay here dead before you.  But I am not able to die, but am altogether strong and hale—­only very sorrowful at heart.”  And therewith he turned and left that place.  Only when he had come to a place where he was entirely by himself with no one but God to see him, he hid his face in his hands and wept as though his heart were altogether broken.  So it was that Sir Tristram fulfilled his pledge.

[Sidenote:  Belle Isoult and Sir Tristram depart for Cornwall] After that, King Angus furnished a very noble and beautiful ship with sails of satin embroidered with figures of divers sorts, and he fitted the ship in all ways such as became the daughter of a king and the wife of a king to embark upon.  And that ship was intended for the Lady Belle Isoult and Sir Tristram in which to sail to the court of Cornwall.

And it was ordained that a certain very excellent lady of the court of the Queen, who had been attendant upon the Lady Belle Isoult when she was a little child and who had been with her in attendance ever since that time, should accompany her to the Court of Cornwall.  And the name of this lady was the Lady Bragwaine.

[Sidenote:  The Queen of Ireland provides a love potion for King Mark and Belle Isoult] Now the day before the Lady Belle Isoult was to take her departure from Ireland, the Queen of Ireland came to the Lady Bragwaine and she bare with her a flagon of gold very curiously wrought.  And the Queen said:  “Bragwaine, here is a flask of a very singular and precious sort of an elixir; for that liquor it is of such a sort that when a man and a woman drink of it together, they two shall thereafter never cease to love one another as long as they shall have life.  Take this flask, and when you have come to Cornwall, and when the Lady Belle Isoult and King Mark have been wedded, then give them both to drink of this elixir; for after they have drunk they shall forget all else in the world and cleave only to one another.  This I give you to the intent that the Lady Isoult may forget Sir Tristram, and may become happy in the love of King Mark whom she shall marry.”