Then was the messenger departed brought before King Mark.Hark,my fellow,said Sir Tristram,go fast unto thy lord,and bid him make true assurance on his part for the truage,as the king here shall make on his part;and then tell thy lord,Sir Elias,that I,Sir Tristram,King Arthur's knight,and knight of the Table Round,will as to-morn meet with thy lord on horseback,to do battle as long as my horse may endure,and after that to do battle with him on foot to the utterance.The messenger beheld Sir Tristram from the top to the toe;and therewithal he departed and came to his lord,and told him how he was answered of Sir Tristram.And therewithal was made hostage on both parties,and made it as sure as it might be,that whether party had the victory,so to end.And then were both hosts assembled on both parts of the field,without the Castle of Tintagil,and there was none but Sir Tristram and Sir Elias armed.
So when the appointment was made,they departed in-sunder,and they came together with all the might that their horses might run.And either knight smote other so hard that both horses and knights went to the earth.
Not for then they both lightly arose and dressed their shields on their shoulders,with naked swords in their hands,and they dashed together that it seemed a flaming fire about them.Thus they traced,and traversed,and hewed on helms and hauberks,and cut away many cantels of their shields,and either wounded other passing sore,so that the hot blood fell freshly upon the earth.And by then they had foughten the mountenance of an hour Sir Tristram waxed faint and for-bled,and gave sore aback.
That saw Sir Elias,and followed fiercely upon him,and wounded him in many places.And ever Sir Tristram traced and traversed,and went froward him here and there,and covered him with his shield as he might all weakly,that all men said he was overcome;for Sir Elias had given him twenty strokes against one.
Then was there laughing of the Sessoins'party,and great dole on King Mark's party.Alas,said the king,we are ashamed and destroyed all for ever:for as the book saith,Sir Tristram was never so matched,but if it were Sir Launcelot.Thus as they stood and beheld both parties,that one party laughing and the other party weeping,Sir Tristram remembered him of his lady,La Beale Isoud,that looked upon him,and how he was likely never to come in her presence.Then he pulled up his shield that erst hung full low.And then he dressed up his shield unto Elias,and gave him many sad strokes,twenty against one,and all to-brake his shield and his hauberk,that the hot blood ran down to the earth.Then began King Mark to laugh,and all Cornish men,and that other party to weep.And ever Sir Tristram said to Sir Elias:Yield thee.
Then when Sir Tristram saw him so staggering on the ground,he said:Sir Elias,I am right sorry for thee,for thou art a passing good knight as ever I met withal,except Sir Launcelot.Therewithal Sir Elias fell to the earth,and there died.What shall I do,said Sir Tristram unto King Mark,for this battle is at an end?Then they of Elias'
party departed,and King Mark took of them many prisoners,to redress the harms and the scathes that he had of them;and the remnant he sent into their country to borrow out their fellows.Then was Sir Tristram searched and well healed.Yet for all this King Mark would fain have slain Sir Tristram.But for all that ever Sir Tristram saw or heard by King Mark,yet would he never beware of his treason,but ever he would be thereas La Beale Isoud was.
CHAPTER XXXI
How at a great feast that King Mark made an harper came and sang the lay that Dinadan had made.
NOW will we pass of this matter,and speak we of the harpers that Sir Launcelot and Sir Dinadan had sent into Cornwall.And at the great feast that King Mark made for joy that the Sessoins were put out of his country,then came Eliot the harper with the lay that Dinadan had made and secretly brought it unto Sir Tristram,and told him the lay that Dinadan had made by King Mark.And when Sir Tristram heard it,he said:O Lord Jesu,that Dinadan can make wonderly well and ill,thereas it shall be.Sir,said Eliot,dare I sing this song afore King Mark?
Yea,on my peril,said Sir Tristram,for I shall be thy warrant.Then at the meat came in Eliot the harper,and because he was a curious harper men heard him sing the same lay that Dinadan had made,the which spake the most villainy by King Mark of his treason that ever man heard.
When the harper had sung his song to the end King Mark was wonderly wroth,and said:Thou harper,how durst thou be so bold on thy head to sing this song afore me.Sir,said Eliot,wit you well I am a minstrel,and Imust do as I am commanded of these lords that I bear the arms of.And sir,wit ye well that Sir Dinadan,a knight of the Table Round,made this song,and made me to sing it afore you.Thou sayest well,said King Mark,and because thou art a minstrel thou shalt go quit,but Icharge thee hie thee fast out of my sight.So the harper departed and went to Sir Tristram,and told him how he had sped.Then Sir Tristram let make letters as goodly as he could to Launcelot and to Sir Dinadan.And so he let conduct the harper out of the country.But to say that King Mark was wonderly wroth,he was,for he deemed that the lay that was sung afore him was made by Sir Tristram's counsel,wherefore he thought to slay him and all his well-willers in that country.
CHAPTER XXXII
How King Mark slew by treason his brother Boudwin,for good service that he had done to him.