But at the end of seven years, King Meliodas took another wife.  Then, when the Queen had sons of her own, it angered her to think that in the days to come, her stepson Tristram, and none other, should rule the fair land of Liones.  The more she thought of it, the more she hated him till, at the last, she was resolved to do away with him.  So she filled a silver goblet with a pleasant drink in which she had mixed poison, and she set it in the room where Tristram played with the young princes, his half-brothers.  Now the day was hot, and presently, being heated with his play, the young prince, the Queen’s eldest son, drank of the poisoned goblet; and immediately he died.  Much the Queen grieved, but more than ever she hated her stepson Tristram, as if, through him, her son had died.  Presently, again she mixed poison and set it in a goblet; and that time, King Meliodas, returning thirsty from the chase, took the cup and would have drunk of it, only the Queen cried to him to forbear.  Then the King recalled to mind how his young son had drunk of a seeming pleasant drink and died on the instant; and seizing the Queen by the hand, he cried:  “False traitress! tell me at once what is in that cup, or I will slay thee!” Then the Queen cried him mercy and told him all her sin.  But in his wrath the King would have no mercy, but sentenced her to be burnt at the stake, which, in those days, was the doom of traitors.  The day having come when the Queen should suffer for her fault, she was led out and bound to a stake in the presence of all the court, and the faggots were heaped about her.  Then the young prince Tristram kneeled before the King and asked of him a favour:  and the King, loving him much, granted him his request.  “Then,” said Tristram, “I require you to release the Queen, my stepmother, and to take her again to your favour.”  Greatly the King marvelled, and said:  “Ye should of right hate her, seeing that she sought your life.”  But Tristram answered:  “I forgive her freely.”  “I give you then her life,” said the King; “do ye release her from the stake.”  So Tristram unloosed the chains which bound the Queen and led her back to the castle, and from that day the Queen loved him well; but as for King Meliodas, though he forgave her and suffered her to remain at court, yet never again would he have aught to do with her.

CHAPTER XII

HOW TRISTRAM FOUGHT WITH SIR MARHAUS OF IRELAND

Now King Meliodas, though he had pardoned the Queen, would keep his son Tristram no longer at the court, but sent him into France.  There Tristram learnt all knightly exercises, so that there was none could equal him as harper or hunter; and after seven years, being by then a youth of nineteen, he returned to his own land of Liones.

It chanced, in those days, that King Anguish of Ireland sent to Cornwall, demanding the tribute paid him in former times by that land.  Then Mark, the Cornish King, called together his barons and knights to take counsel; and by their advice, he made answer that he would pay no tribute, and bade King Anguish send a stout knight to fight for his right if he still dared claim aught of the land of Cornwall.