Then King Mark was filled with wonder at the courage of Tristram, and he said:  “Fair youth, are you not aware that Sir Marhaus of Ireland is a knight well set in years and of such great and accredited deeds of arms that it is supposed that, excepting Sir Launcelot of the Lake, there is not his peer in any court of chivalry in all of the world?  How then can you, who are altogether new to the use of arms, hope to stand against so renowned a champion as he?”

“Lord,” quoth Tristram, “I am well aware of what sort of knight Sir Marhaus is, and I am very well aware of the great danger of this undertaking.  Yet if one who covets knighthood shall fear to face a danger, what virtue would there then be in the chivalry of knighthood?  So, Messire, I put my trust in God, His mercies, and I have great hope that He will lend me both courage and strength in my time of need.”

Then King Mark began to take great joy, for he said to himself:  “Maybe this youth shall indeed bring me forth in safety out of these dangers that menace my honor.”  So he said:  “Tristram, I do believe that you will stand a very excellent chance of success in this undertaking, wherefore it shall be as you desire; I will make you a knight, and besides that I will fit you with armor and accoutrements in all ways becoming to the estate of a knight-royal.  Likewise I will provide you a Flemish horse of the best strain, so that you shall be both furnished and horsed as well as any knight in the world hath ever been.”

[Sidenote:  Tristram is made knight-royal] So that night Tristram watched his armor in the chapel of the castle, and the next day he was made knight with all the circumstances appertaining to a ceremony of such solemnity as that.  And upon the afternoon of the day upon which he was thus made knight, King Mark purveyed a ship in all ways befitting the occasion, and in the ship Tristram and Gouvernail set sail for that island where Sir Marhaus was known to be abiding at that time.

Now upon the second day of their voyaging and about the middle of the day they came to a land which they knew must be the place which they were seeking, and there the sailors made a safe harbor.  As soon as they were at anchor a gangway was set from the ship to the shore and Sir Tristram and Gouvernail drave their horses across the gangway and so to the dry land.

Thereafter they rode forward for a considerable distance, until about the first slanting of the afternoon they perceived in the distance three very fair ships drawn up close to the shore.  And then they were aware of a knight, clad in full armor and seated upon a noble horse under the shadow of those ships, and they wist that that must be he whom Sir Tristram sought.

Then Gouvernail spake to Sir Tristram, saying:  “Sir, that knight resting yonder beneath the shelter of the ships must be Sir Marhaus.”