[Sidenote:  Sir Tristram and Sir Lamorack depart from the island] Then Sir Tristram said:  “Let us go to Sir Launcelot of the Lake, so that I may make my peace with him also.  For he hath writ me a letter chiding me for having done battle with thee when thou wert weary and winded with fighting.  And I was upon my way to see Sir Launcelot and to plead my cause with him when I came hither by good hap, and was able to uplift thee out of thy distress.”  To this Sir Lamorack said:  “I will go with thee to Sir Launcelot whenever it shall please thee; and I will bear full testimony to thy knightliness and to thy courtesy.”

So when the next morning had come they took boat and sailed away from that island.  And the night of that day they abided at the castle of the Lady Loise, who gave thanks without measure to Sir Tristram for ridding the world of so wicked and malign a being as Sir Nabon, and for restoring her inheritance of that land unto her again.  And upon the morning of the next day those two good knights betook their way to Camelot, where they found Sir Launcelot.  There Sir Lamorack exculpated Sir Tristram, and Sir Launcelot immediately withdrew his rebuke for that battle which Sir Tristram had aforetime done against Sir Lamorack.

After that Sir Tristram and Sir Lamorack abode at the court of King Arthur for nigh a year, and during that time they went upon many quests and adventures of various sorts—­sometimes alone, sometimes together.  All these have been set down in ancient histories that tell of the adventures of Sir Tristram and Sir Lamorack.  Some of them I would like right well to tell you of, but should I undertake to do so, the story of those happenings would fill several volumes such as this.  Nevertheless, I may tell you that they did together many knightly deeds, the fame whereof hath been handed down to us in several histories of chivalry.  Therein you may read of those things if you should care to do so.

All this I leave to tell you how Sir Tristram returned into Cornwall, and likewise to tell you of one more famous adventure that he did at this time.

[Sidenote:  Sir Tristram hears from Cornwall of Sir Palamydes] Sir Tristram had been at the court of King Arthur for about a year when one day there came a messenger unto the court at Camelot with news that Sir Palamydes, the Saracen knight aforetold of in this history, had through a cunning trick seized the Lady Belle Isoult and had carried her away to a lonely tower in the forest of Cornwall.  The messenger bore a letter from King Mark beseeching Sir Tristram to return as immediately as possible unto Cornwall and to rescue that lady from her captivity.  And the letter further said that two knights of Cornwall had already essayed to rescue the Lady Belle Isoult, but that they had failed, having been overcome and sorely wounded in battle by Sir Palamydes.  And the letter said that it was acknowledged by all men that Sir Tristram was the only knight of Cornwall who could achieve the rescue of Belle Isoult from so wonderful and puissant a knight as Sir Palamydes.