But to Sir Tristram, it was grief to be at enmity with his uncle who had made him knight, and at last he craved King Arthur’s aid to reconcile him to Mark.  So then the King, who loved Sir Tristram, sent messengers to Cornwall to Mark, bidding him come forthwith to Camelot; and when the Cornish King was arrived, Arthur required him to set aside his enmity to Tristram, who had in all things been his loyal nephew and knight.  And King Mark, his head full of hate, but fearful of offending his lord, King Arthur, made fair proffers of friendship, begging Sir Tristram to return to Cornwall with him, and promising to hold him in love and honour.  So they were reconciled, and when King Mark returned to Cornwall, thither Sir Tristram escorted the Fair Isolt, and himself abode there, believing his uncle to mean truly and honourably by him.

But under a seeming fair exterior, King Mark hated Sir Tristram more than ever, and waited only to have him at an advantage.  At length he contrived the opportunity he sought.  For he hid him in the Queen’s chamber at a time when he knew Sir Tristram would come there unarmed, to harp to the Fair Isolt the music that she loved.  So as Sir Tristram, all unsuspecting, bent over his harp, Mark leaped from his lurking place and dealt him such a blow from behind that, on the instant, he fell dead at the feet of the Fair Isolt.  So perished the good knight, Sir Tristram de Liones Nor did the Fair Isolt long survive him, for refusing all comfort, she pined away, and died within a few days, and was laid in a tomb beside that of her true knight.  But the felon King paid the price of his treachery with his life; for Sir Launcelot himself avenged the death of his friend and the wrongs of the Fair Isolt.

BOOK IV

KING ARTHUR’S NEPHEWS

CHAPTER XVII

SIR GAWAIN AND THE LADY

Among the knights at King Arthur’s court were his nephews, the sons of his sister, Queen Bellicent, and of that King Lot of Orkney, who had joined the league against Arthur in the first years of his reign.

Of each, many tales are told; of Sir Gawain and Sir Gareth to their great renown, but of Sir Mordred to his shame.  For Sir Gawain and Sir Gareth were knights of great prowess; but Sir Mordred was a coward and a traitor, envious of other men’s fame, and a tale-bearer.

Now Sir Gawain was known as the Ladies’ Knight, and this is how he came by the name.  It was at Arthur’s marriage-feast, when Gawain had just been made knight, that a strange thing befell.  There entered the hall a white hart, chased by a hound, and when it had run round the hall, it fled through the doorway again, still followed by the hound.  Then, by Merlin’s advice, the quest of the hart was given to Gawain as a new-made knight, to follow it and see what adventures it would bring him.  So Sir Gawain rode away, taking with him three couples